Beautiful back

One of the Nivkh women rose from the lower side of the bunk and went up to the women who were playing on the log. In her hands was a sort of bundle. When she unfolded it, she began to put something on. I suddenly saw that it was a veskel – a robe made of fish skin, decorated surprisingly beautifully... On the back of her robe was a pattern of such beauty that even a European woman picky with jewellery would be enraptured by it.

This is how Eruxim Abramovič Krejnovič, Soviet ethnographer and linguist, described seeing the decoration on the back of a Nivkh woman on Sakhalin Island. Such an example of Nivkh design can also be found on our robe. The design features common Nivkh motifs, such as spirals and animals (in this case: birds). Similar patterns were also collected by Von Schrenck.

The ability to make clothes and designs was a skill that was highly valued in Nivkh women. On cloth, such designs were achieved through embroidery, but on fish skin a form of appliqué was used. By gluing various layers of fish skin together using fish glue with color applied to the lower layers and carvings in the upper layers, intricate designs could be achieved. Whether this technique was also applied to this robe, is unfortunately difficult to see.

Now that we have seen everything on the front and the back of the robe, we have reached the end of the story of our curk. You could take it off now and hang it on a coat hanger (remember, it is a delicate museum object). However, our thing might not have told its full story yet. There is much more to say about the people this robe has told us about, about their language, culture and history. So much so that perhaps in the future I may present you with something else to try on.