Siapo (tapa cloth)

Description
The making of barkcloth, or tapa, was once widespread throughout the islands of the Pacific. Today, it is most strongly practised in the west Polynesian island groups of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. Barkcloth made in Samoa is called siapo. This is a rectangular-shaped siapo with black and brown designs on a white or plain background. There are leaf-like motifs around the border, and geometrical designs in the middle, alternating with light brown grid designs.

Manufacture

Samoan siapo is made from the bark of the u`a, or paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera), although in the past it was occasionally made from the inner bark of the breadfruit, or banyan tree. It is decorated using dyes made from a variety of trees and plants. The brown dyes come from several sources, the first being the bark of the o`a tree. Scrapings of bark from this tree produce a reddish brown colour. Other sources of brown were the mangrove tree (Rhizophora mucronata) and the candlenut tree (Aleurites moluccana) A source of red-brown colouring was an earth ochre called `ele. It is not found everywhere in Samoa, and in the past was traded quite widely throughout the archipelago.

There are two methods used to decorate Samoan barkcloth. The first method produces siapo mamanu, and involves the freehand painting of patterns on to the barkcloth. There is a range of motifs used in this process, taken directly from plants and animals. These are painted on with a little brush made from a dried pandanus fruit or something similar. In the making of a siapo mamanu, motifs are arranged in an infinite number of ways to create very distinctive and individual pieces of decorated siapo.

Acquistion
This siapo was donated by Thomas Trood Esquire, who was Acting British Vice Consul in Apia, Samoa in 1900. It was forwarded to the Dominion Museum (Te Papa's predecessor) by direction of the administration of Samoa in 1917.