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Small Tahitian tapa (ahu) fragment decorated with red fern design, back side is unadorned. Tahitian tapa designs frequently used leaf or fern fronds dipped in dye and pressed against the tapa. Tapa is a cloth made from the inner bark of trees and is widely used in the Pacific for clothing and bedding, as well as other secular, sacred, and ceremonial uses.
tapa (bark cloth)
tapa (bark cloth)
E3156
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
2 x 3 1/8 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.3635
Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Vol III, 1911. On Google Play.
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