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Overview
Ngatu is the Tongan name given to tapa cloth or decorated bark cloth. It 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. Groups of women work together to decorate the cloth with natural dyes and pigments. Motifs and patterns are often inspired by the natural environment or associated with important people and events.
Description
This ngatu was a fuatanga (complete large square tapa cloth) which was made as a fuatanga ngatu tahina (a conventionally decorated fuatanga, rubbed on kupesi) and later converted to a ngatu `uli (black over painted painted tapa). It has a wide border, between 70 and 76 cm wide, which is undecorated, apart from some very limited hand painted motifs. The central area, which had been completely decorated by rubbing on the kupesi, has been completely overpainted largely in black, although there is a more reddish strip down the centre.
Significance and acquisition history
This ngatu was made in 1990 and given by `Ana Tonu Palu as a gift to her brother Naua Toki (the vendor's father) when she visited New Zealand that year. This kind of gift, from a sister to her brother, is called a kafu and is of special significance in Tongan society. In 1996, `Ana came to New Zealand again and took the fuatanga back to Tonga to be converted to a ngatu `uli. She took it to a women's group in Fua`amotu called Kautaha Hoosi tea, who make ngatu `uli using long established methods. In 1997 the ngatu, now a ngatu `uli, was returned to New Zealand as a more valuable gift to her brother's family. This ngatu'uli was purchased by Te Papa in 2001.