The Lidz Collection consists of artifacts from Melanesia, which, along with West Central Africa and the Northwest Coast of North America, is one of the three areas with the best wood carvings in the world.
New Guinea is divided into two culturally contrasting areas.
The most dramatic and exquisite wood carvings are from the areas of the lower Sepik River and its tributaries, the Yuat and Keram. While this excellence can still be seen in the middle Sepik area, in the upper Sepik cultures the art becomes less sophisticated. At the uppermost reaches of the Sepik River art disappears altogether and the cultures there are of the New Guinea Highlands. The Sepik River is a communication artery along which aboriginal traders carried the artistic produce of the various tribes for sale to other tribes, a practice that long predates colonial times. The Iatmul people, who live directly along the central part of the Sepik River, bought and adopted these traded art forms to the point that there is no longer a traditional Iatmul art style, as there still is among the more outlying Abelam, Mundugumor and Chambri and the upstream Kwoma tribes.