Dohr (Sash)

This very fine, loom-woven textile is one of a group of three in Te Papa's collection attributed to the Eastern Caroline Islands of Pohnpei and Kosrae, which are now part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Thedohr of Pohnpei was woven by women and worn by chiefly men as a symbol of their high status. It was worn as a sashjust above or at the waist portionof a koahl (hibiscus fibre skirt) also worn by Pohnpeian men. However, in nearby Kosrae, a similar textile known as tol, which was only about twice the width of this tor, was worn by men as a loin cloth and by women as the briefest possible mini-skirt.

Materials and decoration techniques
This is a very finely made textile, loom woven, terminating in a fringe at each end. Most of the textile is plain red with a thin, light-coloured border. At one end there is a pattern of three, elongated, central triangles shadowed by faint reversed triangles on either side. There is a shorter patterned area of two zones of lighter fibre at the other end. The fibres used are typically from banana leaves or hibiscus bark.

The back-strap loom
The textile was woven on a back-strap loom similar to that used widely in South-east Asia and Taiwan. The back-strap loom was found in some but not all parts of Micronesia as far east as Kosrae, and sporadically through Melanesia, mainly on small offshore islands as far south as the Santa Cruz group. Archaeological evidence of impressions of loom-woven textiles on shell artefacts suggests that the loom had been present in these parts of the Pacific for at least several centuries before European contact.

Significance
This type of textile is now very rare in some parts of Micronesia. Nineteenth-century missionaries profoundly disapproved of these items of clothing and by the early twentieth century, loom weaving had disappeared from the Eastern Carolines. Today, loom weaving is still practised in some islands of the Western Carolines, such as Ulithi, where woven textiles are still valued and worn on special occasions.