Buka (culture or style)

Describes works created by the inhabitants of Buka Island. Changes in late 20th-century Buka art have their origins in the encounter between Pacific Islanders and the outside world. Whale hunters of the 1800s found the Buka paddles ideally suited to their work; as a result promoting the production of paddles by the Buka people. Lapita pottery and related materials have varied in style into the late 20th century. The people of Buka are known to represent human and animal forms in a naturalistic fashion, however human heads are also constructed in a canine-like style with the jaw protruded outward. Surfaces are often stained black and enhanced with inlaid patterns of red and white pigments.