Dress (sweet sixteen tapa dress)

This one-piece Tongan tapa dress was custom designed and made for the occasion of Rachel Palatavake Vata-i-Viena Vai Helu's 'Sweet Sixteen' birthday on Saturday 19 February, 2011 at the Town Hall, Wellington, New Zealand. This dress was the appointed gown to demonstrate Rachel's 'full-Tongan' heritage and represent her parents' best for their first-born and only daughter.

In Tongan communities in New Zealand families usually only celebrate their daughter's or sister's 21st or 18th birthdays. To honour Rachel a large scale 'Sweet Sixteen' birthday celebration was the inception of her late father, Sione Helu, who passed away before Rachel's birthday arrived. The celebration of Sweet Sixteen coming of age parties is well established among communities in the United States and this event was considered a new development for a New Zealand based Tongan community.

Materials and Design

The gown brings together an assemblage of tapa cloth, shells, and decorative natural fibres and materials. Tapa cloth in Tonga is made from the inner bark of Hiapo (paper mulberry tree). The pieces of bark are beaten with a mallet, widened and joined together to make larger pieces of cloth. Rachel's mother, Toakase Helu, designed the dress and travelled to Tonga to source the cloth and most of the materials, then to Hawai'i to collect the white shells (pule). She took these materials to California, USA for her cousin Filimone Tu'ivai to make the gown.

The design of the dress reflects emerging developments in the use of tapa cloth in the first decades of the 21st century. Although tapa wedding dresses in a European style were common at the time, according to Toakase the creation of a European style tapa dress for a large scale 'Sweet Sixteen' birthday is unprecedented.

Acquisition History

This dress and a small selection of items from the Sweet Sixteen birthday celebrations were offered to Te Papa by Toakase Helu in 2011.