Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing

Each cluster of islands in the Solomons group has a particular style of barkcloth, considered an important part of local cultural heritage. In certain communities, there is a renewed interest in barkcloth-making, after the introduction of cotton cloth caused an initial decline in production.

Decorated cloths like this were used until the 1930s for men’s abe headdresses in the Santa Cruz islands. The cloth could be wrapped around a framework to create a tall cylinder. Western-style brimmed hats replaced abe as wear for senior men, but traditional headdresses are now being made again.

Cloths like this were used to convey local knowledge and customs. The serpentine design on this cloth was described by Solomon Islander Reuben Lilo as related to the highs and lows of life, particularly sickness and death. The dots represent resting places on a journey through mountainous terrain.

Although the barkcloth itself was made by women, only men could paint the images, known collectively as kineha.

In the New Georgia group on the island of Isabel, designs of birds, sharks and dugongs were painted with indigo onto white barkcloth to represent symbolic themes and stories.

Vanuatu is an archipelago of about 80 islands in the western Pacific. It is the most linguistically diverse region of the world, where people speak 110 different languages. The painted patterns on barkcloth communicate aspects of clan identity and history. In Vanuatu people make mostly plaited textiles from pandanus leaf. The two principal areas where barkcloth is made are Ifira (a Polynesian settlement off Efate island) and Erromango island, each making a highly distinctive style of barkcloth.

As a valuable trade item this finely decorated barkcloth was used within ceremonial exchanges, such as marriage payments and chiefly rituals. It is painted with turmeric, red and brown clay pigments, and sealed with black pigment mixed from ash, giving it a shiny varnished appearance. The fringe of feathers and imported red cloth enhances its value further.
The band of painted geometric decoration along the border is similar to barkcloth designs from neighbouring Polynesian islands from which this community had presumably migrated.

In Papua New Guinea, the initiation of young men was a major focus of ceremonial life. Initiates achieved the right to certain knowledge, to participate in ritual activities, and to wear particular garments. Ancestors and spirits were frequently represented on house facades, war shields and pottery vessels by people living along the Sepik River in northern Papua New Guinea. These sacred decorations were also applied to barkcloth loincloths in coastal societies at the river mouth.

Dance aprons made from breadfruit bark are reserved for ceremonial occasions in Manus, Papua New Guinea. They are popular with brides, who wear them in pairs, one to the front and one to the back, secured with belts at the waist. Patterned with rows of intricate seed and shell pendants, these are lively garments designed to move with the body of the dancer.

This apron is made from ‘tubular’ cloth, which naturally has two layers. The finely worked, white snail shell discs, which form the pendants, were once a form of currency, provided by the groom’s family for marriage ceremonies. The bride’s clothing and ornaments incorporated these discs, reflecting all of her new social relationships. Today, both cotton and barkcloth aprons are worn, and colourful glass beads have replaced snail shell discs.

Barkcloth is usually produced by women, but cloth for ritual purposes may be made by men. In the coastal and island societies of Papua New Guinea, initiated men traditionally created spectacular masks using barkcloth, as part of rituals to mediate with spirit-beings living in the surrounding landscape. Made in secret, the masks were revealed as the dancers wearing them emerged into the village.

Kovave mask

Kovave masks were formerly worn by make initiates of the Elema people, who live in the Gulf region of Papua New Guinea. The mask-maker would call out to the spirits of the bush, the kovave, as he cut the cane for the basketry frame. After being covered with stretched barkcloth, the features of specific spirits were carefully created with split cane, ochre and charcoal pigments, encouraging the kovave to temporarily inhabit the masks.

In the northern Polynesian islands of Hawaii, the goddesses Lauhuki and La’ahana watched over the women who beat and decorated barkcloth, and were in turn worshipped by them.

This garment is made of a special type of ribbed cloth known as kua’ula, which was used for men’s loincloths in the late 1700s. Bold, angular designs characterise Hawaiian barkcloth from this period. The zigzag motif symbolises the spine, a sacred part of the body in eastern Polynesia because of its associations with ancestors and genealogy.

In Tonga, barkcloth is decorated with images of the Tongan monarchy, historical events and introduced technologies, such as bicycles and aeroplanes. Tonga is one of the largest producers of barkcloth in the Pacific today. Sheets of cloth are printed by groups of women working with design tablets made of lead strips. At life cycle events and royal occasions such as coronations, barkcloth is worn as clothing, piles of cloth are presented as gifts, and a single cloth of extraordinary length may for a pathway for important guests.

During World War II, Queen Sālote (reigned 1918-65) of Tonga personally sponsored the purchase of spitfires for the Allied war effort, as a demonstration of loyalty to the British Crown.

Each aeroplane bearing the Queen’s name is painted on a rubbed pattern of concentric diamonds, as seen in the bindings securing the roof beams of the monarch’s house. The surrounding squares with crossed lines are a motif named manulua, related to the intermarriage of chiefly lineages which underpin the right to rule.