tribaltextiles.info

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I just picked this up at my favorite antique shop ,the owner of the shop just got this in. He bought it through an estate sale. The person he bought it from informed him that a relative of theirs traveled through Australia quite some time ago and shipped several item back to them over a period of time. Any information on this item would be greatly appreciated. It's quite large, I haven't unrolled the entire piece. It feels like paper in a way but i'm uncertain.
Thanks
David

Dear David

I think that your piece is barkcloth (sometimes known as 'tapa') and probably from the South Pacific. A few pieces have cropped up on the forum in the past. If you search the forum for tapa you should see quite a few old threads. There are a few under barkcloth also. I am afraid that I don't know enough about it to be able to identify the specific island origin of your piece. I will see if I can find some further information from one of our forum members.

Best,

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Hello Pamela . I hope all is well. Many thanks !I'm excited to learn the origin of this piece. The person I bought it from also had two spears that he was told came from the same as the tapa.
David

Hi Sifu.
Firstly this is not an Australian piece. It is, as Pamela has observed, a tapa cloth or bark cloth. It is from Tonga and is most likely a reasonably large piece cut from a larger roll used for ceremonial purposes.
Tapa in Tonga is called Ngatu (pronounced natoo). Tapa is the universal term and there are special names in each of the regions that produce this textile.
Secondly, although you have not posted pictures of the spears, I would guess that your informant is not correct saying that they came from the same source as the Ngatu. It is more likely that the spears are from either New Guinea or from Australia or from some other Pacific Island. I base this guess on the type of artefacts that we see from these areas here in Australia.
Hope this helps,
Jim.

Hello Jim. Thank you very much sir for the detailed information, much appreciated. Here are the spears that I mentioned. Sorry for the delay in posting them
David

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