Yupin (male fertility figures) of the Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea

The Yupin is a male fertility figure made from basket work by the Enga people of the Western Highlands in Papua New Guinea.

In 1975, Roger Neich, former ethnologist at the National Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa's predecessor) documented the significance of Yupin figures among the Enga people and published an article on his findings. It includes a full account of the Yupin written by Rev. H.M. Reah, a missionary who was based in the Western Highlands in the 1960s.

Here we share images of the Yupin in Te Papa's collections and summarise some of Neich's findings, including his map of the distribution of Yupin in the Enga province at the time.