Siapo tasina (tapa cloth)

This is a siapo tasina (tapa cloth) from Sāmoa. The making of barkcloth or tapa was once widespread throughout the islands of the Pacific. In the 21st century, it is most strongly practised in the island groups of Fiji, Tonga, and Sāmoa. Decorated barkcloth made in Sāmoa is called siapo.

Materials

Siapo makers use the bark of the u‘a (paper mulberry tree) to make their cloth. They carefully peel the bark off the tree in strips and then separate the inner bark and scrape it clean. They then pound it with a tapa better on a wooden anvil until it widens into a larger size. The siapo maker then pastes the individual pieces of cloth together to make a larger cloth, before it is decorated.

Decoration techniques

Siapo makers decorate the cloth in two ways: either freehand or by taking rubbings off an ‘upeti - a relief pattern carved into a plank or board. They make dyes from a variety of plants and trees and an earth ochre called ‘ele. The creative flair of siapo makers is seen in the arrangement of the motifs and the clever use of a restricted colour palette. The motifs used usually represent plants and animals. This siapo tasina is unusual in that it is decorated with naturalistic depictions of a four legged animal representing a dog or a horse, and a birds that may be a chicken. They are surrounded by various images of plants and flora.

There is a larger example of this siapo tasina (FE008364) made from the same ‘upeti (pattern board) including the four legged animal and two birds. There are similarities between the indeterminate horse figure on this siapo and relief carvings of similar animals on an ‘alia (double hulled sailing canoe) photographed in the 1890s by Thomas Andrew at Olosega in the eastern islands of Sāmoa (1). The photograph is also in Te Papa’s collections see (C.001450).

Significance

Today siapo are exchanged at ceremonies, weddings, and funerals. Smaller pieces are made especially for the tourist market. This siapo was collected in 1949 by Dr Terence Barrow.

References

Neich, Roger, Samoan Figurative Carvings and Samoan Canoes. Journal of the Polynesian Society 93: pp191-197. (1984).