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Overview
This hiapo (Niuean tapa) was produced by Cora-Allan Twiss (Niue – Alofi, Liku. Aotearoa – Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tumutumu) as a part of the 'Ahu: Ngā wairua o Hina project.
Honouring the past
In this piece titled Past Cora-Allan explores the origins of her Niuean hiapo practice. The narrative delves into a deeply personal request: the creation of burial cloths for her grandparents. At the time hiapo was a sleeping artform with no known remaining makers and Cora-Allan embarked on a journey of learning to enable herself to honour their wish. This process involved the recovery and restoration of the hiapo through the exploration of historical Niuean cloth held in museums and private collections. This artwork honours her grandparents and her connection to Niue through the patterns and motifs.
The placement of pattern on this hiapo hints that this piece was cut or torn from a larger cloth. This speaks to the culture of deliberately cutting and gifting of cloth, and to the fragments of cloth seen todays in collections or in Alexander Shaw’s tapa sampler book. Cora-Allan emphasises the importance of this piece speaking specifically to Niue. She highlights that hiapo is not solely used for funerals but serves a variety of purposes, including ceremonial events, births, clothing, adornment, marriages, and celebrations.
"I came to my practice because I was asked. My grandparents asked me ‘can you make our cloths when we pass away?’ Being asked that question isn't a usual question it's like being asked ‘can you make my casket?’ Being asked to make hiapo for that particular reason, I took it. I didn't even have to think about it. I thought ‘if there's something that I can give my grandparents who have worked their whole lives to make sure that their kids had better lives and to give to us the next generation, why wouldn't I make this cloth that they're asking for?" I say yes and then it takes seven years. Hiapo is not the kind of art form or the kind of practice that you just pick up. You can't pick up a practice if there are no tools left. You can't pick up a practice if there are no knowledge holders and so I had to go and find those things. But I wouldn't have even thought about making hiapo if I wasn't asked and so I attribute my practice to my grandparents."
Cora-Allan Twiss, 2023
Background
In 2021, with the Te Papa Foundation’s support, Te Papa acquired a rare book of tapa cloth samples, one of many assembled by Alexander Shaw in 1787. The samples were cut from larger pieces of tapa collected on Captain Cook’s voyages to the Pacific (1768, 1772, 1776) and represent tapa-making practices from various islands including Hawai‘i, Tahiti and Tonga. While the books contain only fragments of much larger creations, they highlight the variety of textures and artistry attained through the practices, knowledge, and skills of Pacific peoples.
Held in Tahiti in 2023, 'Ahu: Ngā Wairua o Hina brought tapa makers of Tongan, Sāmoan, Niuean, Fijian, Hawaiian, Tahitian, Pitcairn-Norfolk Island, and Māori descent. Over five days this group worked together to re-establish their living relationships to the cloth held within the Alexander Shaw book. Through a process of wānanga this group of makers created two tapa bundles, incorporating the ideas of past, present, and future. Today, one of the bundles resides with Te Papa and the other with Te Fare Iamanaha-Musée de Tahiti et des Îles.