Healers Headpiece (Nai headdress)

This type of headdress is worn by naidugubele healers during consultations. As he plays his harp and dances, shaking the tail bells of the headdress, the healer becomes possessed by a dangerous nai spirit and can discover the source of his client’s suffering. When Hutchings bought this piece in 1966 as an exception to his rule of buying “art” pieces, because he described it as an “ethnographical specimen”