barktyg, tapa

Tapa is a type of cloth crafted from the soft inner bark, or bast, of certain trees. Before the widespread introduction of European textiles, it was produced and used throughout the Pacific for both everyday and ceremonial use.

In Tonga, tapa is traditionally women’s work, learned from an early age.
After the bast is stripped from the paper mulberry tree (hiapo in Tongan, Broussonetia papyrifera in Latin), it is soaked, then laid on a wooden anvil (tutua) and beaten with a mallet (ike), typically made from dense ironwood (toa). The rhythmic sound of many women beating bark together has often been described as the “heartbeat” of the islands. The resulting thin sheets, called feta‘aki, are joined using a natural paste made from starchy roots such as Polynesian arrowroot (mahoa‘a Tonga.

Undecorated barkcloth has often been regarded as lacking aesthetic value and, therefore, less interesting than decorated examples. Yet, in many Polynesian islands, plain and especially white tapa held remarkable significance. It could be worn by elites as a symbol of status, used in funerary rites, or associated directly with the gods. Such cloths served to wrap spaces, bodies, and objects from which mana emanated — mana being the Polynesian concept of a supernatural force derived from the divine realm that confers power, prestige, and aura, but can also be dangerous if not controlled. According to a Tongan legend about the origin of tapa, the goddess Hina once beat bark for so long that the sound irritated the god Tangaroa. When she refused to stop, she was struck with her own beater, and her spirit ascended to the moon, where she continued to beat tapa. Hina became the guardian of women who made barkcloth. The plain white tapa is thus linked with Hina’s original cloth and lunar purity, symbolizing a special connection to the divine. (Héloise Dazard 2025).

Provenance:

Collected on 1 October 1852 by the Swedish frigate Eugenie during her circumnavigation voyage (1851–1853). The event is documented in the official account written by Premier-Lieutenant Carl Skogman (1820–1907), who was responsible for nautical and astronomical observations and was commissioned by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to assist with the physical observations.
According to Skogman’s published narrative (Fregatten Eugenies resa omkring jorden åren 1851–1853, Stockholm: A. Bonnier, 1854), the Eugenie was anchored off the island of Ha‘ano, in the Ha‘apai group (Tonga), near the channel between Foa and Lifuka. During the stay, the crew engaged in active trade with local inhabitants, exchanging foodstuffs and objects such as pigs, chickens, breadfruit, yams, bananas, fishing gear, spears, clubs, tapa, and various small curios (vol. 2, p. 31). Skogman further notes that European goods most prized by the islanders included cotton cloth, knives, axes, bottles, flasks, and glass beads.

Donated to the museum in 1853 by Nils Ehrenfrid (Ehrenfried) Ekströmer (1826–1859), assistant surgeon aboard the frigate Eugenie. (Héloise Dazard 2025).