Tapa (bark cloth)

There are perhaps upwards of 1000 objects in the Auckland Museum’s various collections that include bark cloth in its manufacture. Presented here is a selection of Pacific bark cloth pieces, and the tools and equipment used in the processing and decoration of these. Not included here are hats, fans, baskets, bags, satchels and the like, as these include bark cloth as a decorative element rather than as an integral part of the item itself.

As with most museum collections, the records of where the item was collected are often vague and unreliable. Even where the locality has been carefully recorded, this does not always mean that the item was made there. This is especially true for such a portable material as bark cloth, which was traded and exchanged around the islands by the islanders themselves and then later by European traders.

Localities that appear in brackets, are attributions made by museum staff through careful study of written sources, and comparative work using historic photographs and more reliably localised bark cloth in this and other museums collections.