Tapa:

Tapa is also sometimes known as kapa. The Hawaiian pronunciation
of certain consonants varied from place to place and even from speaker to speaker
in the same area. The consonants t and k, v and w, b and p, l and r and d were
some of the troublesome letters. According to Albert Schutz in the introduction
to Lorrin Andrews’s A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language, “Native speakers were
consulted again and again, and the results were the same: it simply didn’t matter
which of the sounds in the group were used … In 1826, the missionaries put the
question to a vote [for the first Hawaiian alphabet], deciding on k, p, l, and
w and discarding the other letters, except to write foreign borrowings.” However,
the t is still used for the k, especially on the island of Hawai’i, and tapa is
the most familiar word to many.

The linear designs on this malo (men’s clothing) are typical of early Hawaiian tapa. Photos Courtesy of Na Mea Makamae: Hawaiian Treasures

All
early Pacific cultures made fabric from the pounded bark of certain plants, but
Hawaiian tapa was distinguished from all the rest by its fine texture, bold colors
and abstract designs. Used for clothing, ornaments, bedding, burial shrouds, religious
coverings and banners, tapa was usually made from the inner bark of the wauke
and mämake plants. Men may have helped in the cultivation of the plant and the
stripping of the bark, but tapa making was the work of the women. David Malo,
a noted Hawaiian scholar born in 1795, said tapa making was “a source of considerable
profit; so the women who engaged in it were held to be well off, and were praised
for their skill.”

The bark was carefully stripped from the cultivated, mature
plants with a sharp, serrated shell. Strips were then rolled into coils, with
the inner bark on the outside. When unrolled, the outer bark could be pulled or
scraped off. It was important to get all the darker impurities out at this stage,
so that nothing was left but the clean, white, inner bark. As 19th-century Hawaiian
scholar Samuel Kamaka poetically stated, “Well-made tapa must be clearer than
moonlight; clearer than snow on the mountains.”

The cleaned inner bark was
wrapped in ti leaves, soaked in water and fermented for at least a week. After
that, the strips were joined in bundles of five and given a preliminary beating
with a round tapa beater on a stone or wooden anvil. These partially beaten bundles,
called mo’omo’o, were then sun-dried, giving them a clean, white color.

At
this point, the mo’omo’o could be stored or given a final beating, called the
kau process. Five mo’omo’o were wrapped in ti leaves and soaked in water again
for a week, or until the fermentation process produced the required degree of
sliminess and softness. In specially built houses or shaded caves, bundled mo’omo’o
was beaten on a wooden tapa anvil (kua), with wooden tapa beaters called i’e kuku.
The underside of the kua was grooved and produced a distinctive hollow sound when
beaten, a sound fondly remembered in many early accounts of Hawai’i.

The
i’e kuku were four-sided with grooves or decorated patterns carved on each side.
The beating started with the coarse grooves and progressed to the finer grooves.
Hawaiian tapa is distinguished from other Pacific fabrics by its fine, even texture.
Another unique characteristic of 19th-century Hawaiian tapa was that carved beaters
were used to imprint patterns on the finished tapa. These patterned beaters created
a watermark seen when the tapa was held up to the light. Completed tapa was spread
out to dry in the sun. Stones, which held down the corners to keep the tapa flat,
had to be moved periodically to prevent tearing.

Dry, white tapa sheets
provided early Hawaiian artists with backgrounds to express themselves with color
and design. Samples of Hawaiian tapa collected by Captain James Cook in 1778 and
1779 were decorated with bold colors and abstract designs, unlike any other Pacific
island fabric. Detailed repetition of color and lines produced pleasing designs.
Dyes were produced from leaves, roots and stems of plants, charcoal or earth mixed
with water, and brushed or stamped onto the tapa. Sometimes the whole sheet was
immersed in the dye if a single color was desired. Decoration of tapa was an individual
expression with no rigid requirements. Linear designs, net patterns, rectangles
and squares were just some of the ways Hawaiian artists used to decorate tapa.

With
the introduction of metal, more detailed designs were carved into the tapa beaters
themselves. When these carved beaters were used for the final beating, the designs
were imprinted in the tapa. Designs were also carved in bamboo stamps, which were
used to imprint the tapa. Repetition of these stamped designs produced patterns.

Hawaiian
men wore malo, loincloths made of tapa, which were about a foot wide and six to
eight feet long. The malo was wrapped between the legs and around the waist; the
free ends were tucked into the waistband and left to hang in the front. A stitching
in the middle joined early versions of the malo, because the normal length of
a mo’omo’o was too short for one malo. An important ceremony in early Hawai’i
was the initiation of a heiau which included the dressing of the principle wooden
image with the sacred malo of the king. This act sanctified the heiau and gave
life to the wooden image of the god.

The
English translation for a part of this ceremonial chant follows:

The
sacred malo of the king is life to the women chiefs.

Bind it fast to the
heiau,

An ordinary heiau, a royal heiau,

A heiau for the king, for
‘Umi, son of Lïloa.

Long live the king!

May he be victor, and put
down his enemies!

Array now the god image in the malo!

It is accepted,
the ceremony, the ceremony of the king is accepted!

The pa’u, a dress
for Hawaiian women, was a garment that measured about three feet wide and nine
feet long. It was wrapped around the breasts or around the waist and tucked in
to keep it in position. The clothing of the ali’i women was decorated with great
detail and color. The pa’u could also consist of many layers, which were sewn
on one side to keep them together. Lucy Thurston, one of the pioneer missionaries
to Hawai’i, recalled a feast given by Liholiho (Kamehameha II) in 1820 to commemorate
the death of King Kamehameha I:

“Kamamalu, his favorite queen, … according
to court ceremony, so arranged a native cloth pa’u a yard wide, with ten folds,
as to be enveloped round the middle with seventy thicknesses. To array herself
in this unwieldy attire, the long cloth was spread of the ground, when, beginning
at one end, she laid her body across it, and rolled herself over and over till
she had rolled the whole around her … after this presentation was over, her
majesty lay down again upon the ground and unrolled the cloth by reversing the
process of clothing.”

Kapa moe were the sleeping covers of the Hawaiians.
They consisted of layers of tapa sewn along one border to keep them together.
Generally, a kapa moe had a kilohana (an outer, colored sheet) and two or more
inner, white sheets. They were about seven feet by eight feet. Tapa also was used
to cover the oracle towers on the heiau platforms. These towers were called ‘anu’u
and it was here that the gods spoke to the kahuna. Cook visited a heiau site with
artist John Weber, who recorded the trip with a drawing published in the atlas
of Cook’s third voyage. Cook commented on these towers on his initial visit to
Kaua’i:

“As
we ranged down the coast from the east, in the ships, we had observed at every
village one or more elevated white objects, like pyramids or rather obelisks;
and one of these, which I guessed to be at least 50 feet high, was very conspicuous
from the ship’s anchoring position and seemed to be at no great distance up this
valley.”

Another religious use for tapa was the banner of tapa on the Lono
image. This banner which hung from the Lono image crossbars, resembled the sails
of Cook’s ship and the Hawaiians believed Cook was their god, Lono, returning
as he had promised. This image of Lono was carried around the island from ahupua’a
to ahupua’a during the makahiki season. This was the tax-collecting season and
it was the duty of the konohiki (overseer) to have all the taxes collected before
the image reached his district. Once the taxes were collected and accepted by
the priest, the land was pronounced free. Celebrations and harvest followed this
declaration. The tax for each ‘ili (division of an ahupua’a) was a hog, a dog,
a fishnet, a fish line, a cluster of feathers and 20 tapas.

Tapa making
ceased in the latter part of the 1800s, since most Hawaiians had by that time,
converted to cotton clothing and bedcovers. In the 1920s, tapa was popular for
book covers and mementos for tourists. However, this rough-textured, brown-lined
tapa was more like the Samoan or Fijian tapa. In the 1980s, a few Hawaiian artists
were successful in duplicating the fine texture and artistic decorations of Hawaiian
tapa. This dedicated research into Hawaiian tapa making is just a part of the
revival and pride that Hawaiians are finding in their own culture. Learning about
this ancient practice allows them to connect with their ancestors and historical
traditions in a way in which they can pass on this information to their keiki
in order to keep their culture alive.