The doorframes of the large Kanak ceremonial huts are carved in the image of emblematic ancestors. Represented on their deathbed, their heads stick out and their bodies are wrapped in a stylized mat. The rot-resistant houp wood (Montrouzeria cauliflora) used has a strong symbolic charge : endemic to New Caledonia and considered to be the revered ancestor of all the trees in the New Caledonian forest, it represents the strength of the clan through the ages.