Earlier, no woven textiles were known in Oceania. Weaving looms were only known in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia and on the Santa Cruz Islands in the Soloman Islands. Instead, people clothed themselves in such bark fibre material, known as ‘Tapa.’
This bark fibre was produced from the bark of the paper mulberry tree, occasionally also from the bark of other trees. The tree bark was extensively removed from the trunk and the soft, inner bark fibre separated in strips from the hard, outer bark.
The soft stripes were subsequently wetted by women. Then the strips were beaten on their edges with wooden or stone mallets (‘Tapa beaters’) until their borders were mutually almost matted and connected. Alternatively, the borders were glued with latex from the rubber tree. In this fashion, large, connected areas of bark fibre were created, which were either painted or printed using matrices of palm-leaf ribs.
Every Oceanic island or island group developed its own Tapa pattern. Bark bast was not only used as clothing, mostly as wrap-around skirts for men and women, but also for many other purposes: as mats for sleeping, as blankets, as gifts for weddings and births, as ritual clothing for statues of gods, and as the outer skin of painted dance-masks, as well as for symbols of rank and as shrouds at funerals. This bark bast 'Tapa' originates from Tonga. Recognisable on its typical patterns:
It is composed of three continuous widths, which in turn are divided into twelve alternating fields. The light brown, structured background of the wide, long pictorial field is produced by wrapping board-like matrices (‘Kupesi’) with cords, painting them with colours, and lying them on the ‘Tapa.’ Over this background, diverse motifs were hand-painted in dark, black-brown plant colours: six symbols, reminiscent of butterflies, near motifs of three dots, alternately interrupted by six squares, which each are again divided into 16 small, thickly painted squares. They carry naturalistic flower and plant symbols, as well as geometric-abstract motifs.
This main field is divided in the middle by similarly arranged stripes, and completed at both ends at the left and right. At the outer borders of this ‘Tonga Tapa’ (locally also known as ‘Ngatu’), are found six light, uncoloured fields. Five of these fields bear painted, Arabic numerals: ‘24’, ‘25’, ‘26’ on one side, and ‘24’ and ‘26’ (reversed) in two fields on the opposite border.
Such ‘borrowings’ from other, foreign cultures frequently appear on bark bast fabrics from Tonga. They, however, only have decorative significance as ‘pattern’.
Overall this ‘Tapa’ is an interesting collector’s piece, with only minimal age-related damage (a small central hole).
First half to mid-20th century; dimensions: ca. 410 cm x 133 cm. (ME)

Provenance: American Collection, Private Collection Austria.

Literature: ‘Traditional Tapa Textiles of the Pacific’ by Roger Neich & Mick Pendergrast, illustrations p. 44 to p. 51.