Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Fine Art (Sculpture), Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / This dissertation examines the influences and interventions affecting five selected woodcarvers working in the Northern Province over a period of fifteen years. Chapter Orneis divided into three sections. The first section explores the emergence of the woodcarving tradition through the watershed exhibition of Tributaries (1985), which claimed the 'discovery' of the master woodcarvers from the region. Shortly following on from this was the Neglected TradihmD exhibition (1988) whose role defined a turning point in the exhibiting and documentation of black artists within a changing art historical perspective. / M