The Abelam yam mask is a woven cane-and-vine basketry helmet from the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea, coated in mud-clay and repainted in brilliant natural pigment for every long-yam harvest. Clay-ochre reds and yellows, chalky lime white, and soot black are laid in bold curvilinear bands over a long-nose ridge and concentric-ring eyes. This system captures that ceremonial palette at full saturation — fresh, powerful color applied matte over an earthy woven-mud ground that is never cream, never washed out, always warm brown at its root.