# Pacific Barkcloth (Tapa) Design

> Barkcloth beaten from paper-mulberry inner bark and decorated across Polynesia and Fiji for gift exchange at weddings, funerals and chiefly investitures. Motifs are transferred rather than simply drawn: rubbed over pattern boards in Tonga and Samoa, stencilled in Fiji, stamped in Hawai'i, then sharpened by hand. The palette is earth browns and soot black on cream bark, inside ruled squares and bands on cloths that can run past twenty metres.

- Period: 1700–present
- Where: Oceania
- Origin: Western Polynesia and Fiji (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji), with Hawai'i, Niue, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Futuna and 'Uvea
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Tapa, Ngatu (Tonga), Siapo (Samoa), Masi (Fiji), Kapa (Hawai'i), Hiapo (Niue)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/pacific-tapa/

## Use it with care

Tapa is women's ceremonial wealth, made collectively and presented at weddings, funerals and the investiture of chiefly titles; particular motifs commemorate events, lineages and royalty, and some designs belong to families, villages or chiefly lines. Commission and pay tapa makers and their work groups (such as the koka'anga in Tonga), credit the island and the maker, and do not lift motifs from museum cloths onto products or treat Tongan, Samoan, Fijian and Hawaiian traditions as one interchangeable 'Polynesian' pattern.

## How it works

- Rule the cloth into squares or bands first and fill each with one repeated motif.
- Transfer motifs indirectly, by rubbing dye over relief pattern boards, stencilling or stamping, and accept the soft, broken edges this gives.
- Overpaint key lines freehand to sharpen the transferred design, adding borders, numerals or commemorative emblems.
- Restrict colour to earth browns, red-brown and soot black on the cream bark ground.
- Work at monumental, communal scale: one presentation cloth made by a women's work group can run to dozens of metres.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (defining)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (characteristic)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (characteristic)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (characteristic)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (occasional)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (defining)
- [Misregistration & overprint](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/misregistration-and-overprint/) (occasional)
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (characteristic)
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (defining)

### Medium & production
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (defining)
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (characteristic)
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (defining)
- [Authoritative & institutional](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/authoritative-and-institutional/) (characteristic)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)

Avoids: Full polychrome, Fluorescent & neon, Gradients, Naturalistic depiction, Illusion of depth, Straight photography, Gloss & highlights

Palette: #e9dcc0, #8a3b1f, #3b2416, #161311, #b9772f

Typefaces: Freehand-painted numerals and capitals on ngatu, from length markers to commemorative inscriptions, Faces with full support for Tongan, Samoan, Fijian and Hawaiian orthographies (ʻokina and macrons), e.g. Noto Sans, for accompanying text

Known for: Tongan ngatu made by koka'anga women's work parties over kupesi pattern boards (Te Papa collection); Fijian masi kesa decorated with cut stencils (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge); Samoan siapo 'elei rubbed on upeti boards and freehand siapo mamanu; Mary Jewett Pritchard (American Samoa); Hawaiian kapa stamped with 'ohe kapala bamboo stamps; Alexander Shaw, A Catalogue of the Different Specimens of Cloth Collected in the Three Voyages of Captain Cook (1787); John Pule and Nicholas Thomas, Hiapo: Past and Present in Niuean Barkcloth (2005)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Alike in its design choices: [Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bogolanfini.md) (1900–present), 81% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Kōwhaiwhai & Toi Māori Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/maori-kowhaiwhai.md) (1500–present), 75% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Adinkra & Kente Symbol Systems](https://stylogeny.com/styles/adinkra-kente.md) (1700–present), 71% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Amazigh Sign System & Tifinagh](https://stylogeny.com/styles/amazigh-sign-system.md) (c. 0–present), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Andean Woven Graphic Systems](https://stylogeny.com/styles/andean-woven-graphics.md) (c. 600–present), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Northwest Coast Formline Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/northwest-coast-formline.md) (1700–present), 63% alike

## Real works

- [Panel (Masi Kesa)](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316402): mid- to late 19th century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- [Ngatu fuatanga (tapa cloth)](https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/232141): Ungatea Faiva, with the Mofuike Women's Work Group, 1978, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (FE010739)
- [Panel](https://clevelandart.org/art/1955.305): early 1800s, The Cleveland Museum of Art
- [Wedding Tapa (Gatu Vakaviti)](https://collections.lacma.org/object/158543): 20th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2010.160); image via Wikimedia Commons
- [Ngatu fuatanga](https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1485299): Ota'ota Fahina Society, 2014, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (FE013023)

## Sources

- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Ngatu (Tongan barkcloth): https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/topic/1114
- Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, Masi: https://maa.cam.ac.uk/masi
- Wikipedia: Tapa cloth

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Pacific Barkcloth (Tapa) Design”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/pacific-tapa/