This cushion features coconut buttons.

Tapa cloth is one of the most intriguing products made in the Pacific islands. In several parts of Melanesia from New Guinea to Vanuatu, in Fiji, and on most of the high islands of Polynesia from Hawaii to Tahiti, the Marquesas, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand, making barkcloth is an ancient craft that has been practiced for thousands of years.

Textile-making has a long tradition in the Pacific Islands. While having utilitarian function, textiles have also been used to commemorate life's important events and ceremonies.

Barkcloth, known in many regions of the Pacific as tapa, is a widely used fabric. Not woven like most textiles, tapa cloth is made from strips cut from the bark of the Paper Mulberry tree that are flattened with special mallets. Many strips can be glued together with a plant resin to create a large sheet of fabric. The thin paper-like material can be painted or printed with natural pigments, applied with brushes or bamboo stamps. Geometric patterns, reminiscent of Polynesian tattooing, are also commonly found on tapa cloth.

Today it is still customary at weddings for the bride and groom to be given large quantities of finely woven mats and tapa cloth, which are often worn around their bodies in layers as a sign of community blessing. Other passages of life that often involve the ceremonial exchange of textiles are births and funerals. (The above information is from a Crizmac Textiles of the Pacific Islands newsletter for teachers).

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