Overview
Tapa (bark cloth), called kapa in Hawai‘i, is an important textile in much of the Pacific. Its many uses include clothing, house decorations, and wrapping for sacred objects.
This piece of kapa is part of a special group of four textiles presented in 1918 to Te Papa’s predecessor, the Dominion Museum. Although its history is unproven, it is typical of kapa collected by crew on British explorer James Cook’s third voyage (1776–1780).
This example typifies the Hawaiian practice in the 1700s of stitching pieces of barkcloth together before applying the decoration. On the underside, there is a neat seam.