Small orange and white shells bought at the markets in Buin nestle in the woven ‘Solomon’s bag’ that Siwai artist Pauline Kimei Anis has slung over her shoulder. The shells have travelled a great distance — via Choiseul Province and the Shortland Islands in the nearby Solomon Islands — to Buin on Bougainville Island. Like shells in the ocean, individuals move across national borders regularly to visit family members and to engage in cultural trade. Anis is a proud Siwai woman from South Bougainville, who has kin from the Solomon Islands in her extended family, as lots of people do. The lines on political maps have been drawn irrespective of the natural flow of people and objects over the seas for centuries.

Anis uses the shells she buys to create her decorative shell harnesses, body adornments that Siwai women wear as part of bride-price ceremonies. She also substitutes coloured beads for shells in some of her creations. The value of Hanai aakono is associated historically and culturally with the creation and transformation of social relationships, and the use of these ornaments as gifts for marriage not only brings individuals together, but renews relationships. The beauty and durability of the shells represent these significant connections involving people, families and clans.