Painted barkcloth, decorated with a spiral pattern

Such tree bark cloths are called maro in the Sentani region. Maro is the general name for tree bark and also for the (dance) clothing made from it (Greub 1992, 127). Such tree bark cloths were worn mainly by married women as loincloths (Webb 2011, 57). They were also hung at graves of girls or young women (Wirz 1928, 296).