Cultural Producer Don Williams inspects

Melbourne, AUSTRALIA: Cultural Producer Don Williams inspects a coffin carved in the shape of a running shoe by the Paa Joe Carpentry workshop in Ghana and commissioned for Festival Melbourne 2006, the cultural festival of the Commonwealth Games, in Melbourne 09 March 2006. The collection of coffins which include a mobile phone, a shark and a frilled lizard, celebrate the role of life and death in contemporary Ghanian life and the coffins have a special significance to the past life of the deceased. Modern Ghanian funerals are colourful and noisy spectacles with the carved and brilliantly coloured coffins being carried through the town is an integral part of the ceremony. The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games run 15-26 March. AFP PHOTO/William WEST (Photo credit should read WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)