The ROM or “masked” dance is known for its detailed and complex masks, elaborate costumes, and rhythmic drumming. It is performed by the chiefs, elders, and sorcerers during special ceremonies, grade-taking, and occasionally for performances.
In this post I will share with you the history and magic of the cone shaped masks. In our next blog, you will encounter the extraordinary ROM dance.
Legend of the Mask
The two-sided ROM mask represents good and evil. The legend says that a beautiful young woman from Olal (a village on the North tip of Ambrym) created the first ROM costume to gain the love of a young man. She donned the ROM outfit and enticed him into the forest where she revealed herself to him and fatefully told him how she made the costume.
The man did not love the woman, but he did love the mask. So, he killed the woman, took the mask, and sold the rights to make the copies of the costume to fellow tribesmen. He traded the rights for pigs which he used to gain the next grade and improve his status.
The belief that stands for the “good” stems from a young mother who had a baby who could not be soothed. It cried uncontrollably so she created a mask to bring it joy.
How is the ROM Costume Made?
The ancient ritual is shrouded in secrecy. Costumes are kept in strict hiding until the ceremony begins. If a male takes a “peek”, they must pay the fine of one pig and endure a whipping with a stinging plant.
If a woman watched any process in the making of the costume then she would be killed.
The ROM mask consists of a tall, conical, brightly painted, banana fiber mask, with a face that resembles a baboon. Each side is unique and clearly shows the fight between good and evil. The top part is adorned with feathers, leaves, and flowers.
The dancer’s bodies are adorned in a thick, somewhat intimidating cloak of dried bananas leaves. In their hand they carry hand woven, cone shaped weapons to ward off evil spirits.
Each costume, especially the mask is made with great sorcery and embedded with magic.
High ranking chiefs and warriors who dance alongside the Rom dancers wearing nambas. They will often wear red flowers in their hair to symbolize pride, majesty, knowledge and strength, as well as a boar tooth necklace to indicate power and wealth.
Some chiefs will wear a namale leaf on their back to convey peace, while others wear white bird feathers to suggest both peace and safety.
The Rights to the Mask
Only men who are of a certain grade can buy the rights to make a mask. When a man wishes to ascend the village hierarchy, he must purchase (with pigs and money) the rights to learn how to make the mask and embed it with spirits and power. They will create a pattern and spend an extensive amount of time learning the rules that determine specific colors and shapes of the mask as well as the type of magic it will possess.
The first mask design will be very simple and will only cost a few pigs and money. As the man ascends in grades, his mask will become more complicated and will cost a lot more. As the man ascends, he must pay with more pigs and money to learn the teachings of a more complicated designs. The right to make or wear a sacred mask carries high costs in the Ambrym society.
Once they buy the rights to a design they own it for life. They will be the only one that can replicate the design, carve the design, and draw the design for eternity.
Each design has powerful magic embedded into it which is why it is destroyed after the ceremony. Part of the teaching is not only how to create the mask, but how to embed it with the spirits. ROM masks usually invoke the spirits of the ancestors and are important agents of social control.
Mass Destruction
Immediately following the ceremony, the creator of the costume will destroy the mask and burn the banana leaves. They believe that the spirit within lives on and will haunt and plague the wearer if it is not destroyed.
Although, I think that is an ancient belief and practice. Why do you ask? Well we were told to tell other cruisers to come anytime to see the ROM dance. But if it takes 2 weeks to make the costumes and they are destroyed after each ceremony, then how can someone come to see it anytime??
After the ceremony we were allowed to take photos of the costumes. However, nobody was allowed to get closer than 3 meters.
This website has interesting insight into the ROM mask.
Coming up next is the very exciting ROM dance which was a profound and riveting privilege to witness.
Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events. The ROM dance at the Fanla Festival took place on 11 July 2024. Did you read about Fanla, the authentic kastom village where the ROM dance takes place?