Tapa Cloth

• Object: Tapa Cloth
• Artist: -
• Circa: -
• Dimensions: ~ 13' L x 8' W
• Culture Area: Oceania / Pacific Islands
• Cultural Group: Tonga
• Cultural Context: Tapa cloth is made of bark fibers of the Mulberry tree. The manufacture of tapa is an ancient craft that has been practiced for thousands of years throughout the Pacific Islands. The paper mulberry tree, traditionally, may only be tended by the men of the village. Once the tree is ready to be harvested, however, the processing may only be done by the women. In the villages where tapa are made, the pounding noise of producing them is nearly constant and when the pounding ceases, it means a person in the village has died, with the resulting moment of silence indicating the deceased's status by length of silence. Traditionally, they may be decorated by block printing or painted, or a combination of the two. Tapa has long served both utilitarian and ritualistic functions within the Pacific Island cultures. As a symbol of wealth and status, Tapa was often presented in ritual gift exchanges for matrimonial dowry and it also featured prominently in large ceremonial occasions such as weddings, births and deaths particularly when connected with royal or high ranking families. The numbers printed on the edges indicate the size in langanga, which range between 45 to 60 centimeters. This ngatu is 10 langanga wide and 20 langanga long. Some have been made as long as 50, for some auspicious ceremonial giftings. This ngatu features the words Fakamalu O'Katea as well as a design representing a shelter. Faamalu O'Katea, meaning Katea's Shelter, is from a story about a woman, Katea, who finds herself in the hills when labor strikes her and takes shelter under a tree to give birth.
• Donor: Sharon Koch
• Catalog #: 118.090