Ngatu launima (tapa cloth)

About this item

Title

Ngatu launima (tapa cloth)

Content partner

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Collection

Te Papa Collections Online

Description

Ngatu launima Ngatu is Tongan barkcloth, and the term launima indicates the length of the piece (50 langanga). In Tonga, girls from an early age learn to make ngatu from the bark of the paper mulberry tree. Other natural resources are used as dyes and glue, and the cloth is beaten with mallets made from the dense wood of the casuarina tree. Tapa making in Tonga is characterised by freehand drawing and by rubbing on pattern blocks called kupesi. Ngatu can sometimes tell a story, using symbols...

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Format

Image

Date created

1955

URL

https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/95519

Related subjects

Crowns / Flowers / bark cloth / tapa / textiles / Tonga / United Kingdom / Polynesian / Tongan / royalty / queens

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