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How did Polynesian women decorate tapa cloth?
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Oceanic art and architecture
An Aboriginal Australian decorating a tightly woven dilly bag with white, yellow, and ochre (red) paints, Northern Territory, Australia, 1948.
Polynesian women produced large quantities of tapa (bark cloth) by pounding the bark of trees, such as the paper mulberry, into sheets. To decorate this cloth with abstract designs, they employed a variety of techniques:12
- Painting: Using vegetable dyes, women applied designs directly to the cloth. In Fiji, for example, black, brown, and reddish dyes were used to create bold, dense geometric patterns.23
- Stenciling: Designs were created using leaf templates. This was the most prevalent decorative technique in Fiji.23
- Rubbing: Cloth was rubbed over relief-design tables to transfer patterns.2
- Printing and Stamping: Women used carved bamboo rollers or blocks to print designs onto the fabric.32
- Watermarking: This technique was also used to add texture or patterns to the material.1
Beyond these methods, tapa was sometimes further embellished by attaching ornaments such as feathers, shells, and animal teeth. While often left plain white for daily use, the cloth was frequently decorated for special occasions, with specific styles and motifs varying across different Polynesian cultures.134