Paperskin: barkcloth across the Pacific - Queensland Art Gallery

2 

Paperskin 

Barkcloth across the Pacific

Publishers 

Queensland Art Gallery 

stanley Place, south bank, brisbane 

PO box 3686, south brisbane 

Queensland 4101 Australia 

www.qag.qld.gov.au 

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

Cable street, Wellington 

PO box 467, Wellington 

New Zealand 

www.tepapa.govt.nz 

Queensland Museum 

Cnr Grey and Melbourne streets, south brisbane 

PO box 3300, south brisbane 

Queensland 4101 Australia 

www.qm.qld.gov.au 

Published for ‘Paperskin’, an exhibition organised by the 

Queensland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

and Queensland Museum 

‘Paperskin: barkcloth across the Pacific’ 


31 October 2009 – 14 February 2010 

‘Paperskin: The Art of Tapa Cloth’ 


18 June 2010 – 26 september 2010 

CurATOrs 

PREVIOUS PAGE 

Siapo unknown 

Samoa 

Barkcloth, dye / 160cm (diam) / 

Collected 1885. Gift of Mr. D. 

Grahame, 1957 / Collection: 

Museum of New Zealand 

Te Papa Tongarewa 

Maud Page, Curator, Contemporary Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery 

sean Mallon, senior Curator, Pacific Cultures, 


imelda Miller, Assistant Curator, Torres strait islander and Pacific indigenous 

studies, Queensland Museum 

© Queensland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

and Queensland Museum, 2009 

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright 

Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public without 

prior written permission of the publishers. No illustration may be reproduced 

without the permission of the copyright owners. Copyright for texts in this 

publication is held by the Queensland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand 

Te Papa Tongarewa and Queensland Museum. Copyright of photographic 

images is held by individual photographers and the three institutions. 

isbN: 978 1 921503 09 2 

Paperskin 

Barkcloth across the Pacific 

Queensland Art Gallery Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Queensland Museum

Contents 

Foreword 6 

Tony ellwood / Michelle hippolite / ian Galloway 

Preface 8 

Nicholas Thomas 

Paperskin: An introduction 10 

Maud Page 

beyond the paperskin 22 

sean Mallon 

The Pacific perspective on the Queensland 

Museum: Tradition is present in the past 

and here in the present 32 

imelda Miller 

Plates 38 

list of works 72 

selected bibliography 76 

Acknowledgments 78 

Authors 80

Foreword 

Tony Ellwood 

Michelle Hippolite 

Ian Galloway 

‘Paperskin’ brings together works from hawai‘i to Papua New Guinea, dating from 

the late eighteenth century to 2006. since its introduction into the Pacific from islands 

of south-east Asia over 3000 years ago, cloth beaten from bark and patterned with 

striking designs has been an important mode of artistic and cultural expression in 

many Pacific nations and regions. Yet, in art history terms, it has not received the 

attention accorded to other media. ‘Paperskin’ introduces Australian and New Zealand 

contemporary art audiences to these works and to the cultures that made them. 

The barkcloths on display in this exhibition vary from intricate crosshatched designs from 

the solomon islands to spectacular performance masks from the baining and elema 

peoples of Papua New Guinea. The relationship to place is a significant element in all the 

works; the importance of nature and the complex cosmologies of Pacific cultures are 

also evident. With strident use of patterning and colour, the cloths express the vitality of 

these cultures and the importance of visual expression as a means of communication. 

The capacity for change, demonstrated by the incorporation of new ideas and 

materials, can be traced in the works created during the early period of colonisation and 

missionary activity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. 

Given the importance of exchange for Pacific culture, all three institutions involved in 

the organisation of ‘Paperskin’ — Queensland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te 

Papa Tongarewa and Queensland Museum — are delighted to have collaborated on 

the presentation of this significant exhibition. Works have been selected from each of 

our public collections and that of private collector harold Gallasch in south Australia. 

We are grateful to the curators, Maud Page, Curator of Contemporary Pacific Art, 

Queensland Art Gallery; sean Mallon, senior Curator, Pacific Cultures, Museum of 

New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; and imelda Miller, Assistant Curator, Torres strait 

islander and Pacific indigenous studies, Queensland Museum, for their commitment 

to the exhibition. We also extend our thanks to all the staff involved in realising this 

ambitious cross-Tasman project. 

PREVIOUS PAGE 

Mask (detail) unknown 

Papua New Guinea 

Orokolo, Gulf Province 

Barkcloth, dye, cane / 31.5 x 

95 x 21cm / Collected by S.G. 

MacDonell, 1913 / Collection: 


Kapa (detail) 1770s 

Hawai‘i 

Barkcloth, dye / 63.5 x 129cm / 

A.H. Turnbull Collection. 

Presented by the Trustees of the 

Turnbull Estate, 1918 / Collection: 

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa 

Tongarewa 

On a more sombre note, it is with great regret that we note the passing of Dr seddon 

bennington, who was Chief executive Officer of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa 

Tongarewa until his tragic death in July this year. seddon was an enthusiastic 

supporter of the ‘Paperskin’ exhibition throughout its development. his unerring 

commitment to the public relevance of state museums has been a significant 

inspiration to those working in the fields of art, culture and science in this region and 

he will be greatly missed. 

‘Paperskin’ is an important new consideration of the barkcloth medium. We trust 

that Australian and New Zealand audiences will find a rich source of inspiration in 

this exhibition. 

Tony Ellwood 

Director, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art 

Michelle Hippolite 

Acting Chief executive / Kaihautu, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

Dr Ian Galloway 

Director and Chief executive Officer, Queensland Museum 

6 7

Preface 

Nicholas Thomas 

since the eighteenth century, the barkcloth of the Pacific has intrigued travellers and 

captured the attention of connoisseurs in europe. From the 1770s, the decoration of 

Tongan ngatu, hawaiian kapa and other fabrics sparked the interest of collectors, and 

soon after Cook’s voyages, sheets of barkcloth began to be cut up for distribution 

among albums of samples. it was briefly the fashion for london ladies to adapt their 

garments, incorporating tapa, which has thus been a cross-cultural fabric for nearly 

250 years. 

if, early on, barkcloth spoke eloquently of the exotic, it is strange that it has only recently 

been seriously studied, and only recently recognised as a major Oceanic art form. Though 

there are brief reports and discussions scattered through many early anthropological 

monographs, it was only in 1972 that a book dedicated to tapa in Polynesia (by simon 

Kooijman, a Dutch anthropologist) was published, and still more recently that a book (Neich 

and Pendergrast’s 1997 Pacific Tapa) with colour plates appeared, that could be said to do 

justice to the aesthetics of the medium. There are, of course, explanations for this neglect. 

Tribal art studies and art markets have long been biased toward sculptural forms 

and toward works of art made by men, while fabrics have been neglected. equally 

unfortunate was the perception that patterned and painted cloth is merely ‘decorated’, 

and decoration, perceived as a lower-order, sub-artistic level of cultural creativity. until 

recently, these fabrics were seen as bearers of patterns rather than works of art, and 

were typically exhibited as backdrops in museum display cases rather than presented 

as objects that could be appreciated for their integral value. 

No major art exhibition has been dedicated to barkcloth until now. ‘Paperskin’ is a 

landmark project that brings into view a stunning selection of fabrics, primarily from the 

rich but largely un-researched collections of Te Papa and the Queensland Museum. 

some of these — the samoan, hawaiian and Fijian examples — will be familiar to those 

who already have an interest in the genre. but some, such as the animated Niuean 

Hiapo (detail) 19th century 

Niue (attributed) 

Barkcloth, dye / 105 x 171.5cm / 

Collection: Museum of New 

Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

hiapo example, are extraordinary and unlike any other Niuean piece in any collection, 

anywhere in the world. Hiapo such as these remind us that they are not examples of 

an object type but unique works of art. At the same time, barkcloths are not solely, or 

not exactly, works of art: the terminological debate is ultimately unproductive, but it is 

important to remember that these were not made for aesthetic appreciation in a narrow 

sense, but rather to constitute sanctity, to define a ceremony, to wrap around a body, 

to bear knowledge or to effect a gift. These art forms were embedded in the lives of 

Pacific islanders and in many places, and in many ways, they still are. 

The curators are to be congratulated on a sparkling and singular exhibition which may 

be the first but should definitely not be the last. let us hope that it encourages islanders, 

artists, students, curators and other interested people to look again, and more intently, at 

the barkcloth of the Pacific. 

Nicholas Thomas is Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Professor of historical 

Anthropology, Cambridge university. 

8 9

10 

Ngatu 1940s 

Tonga 


Gift of Valerie Morris, 1989 / 



Paperskin: An introduction 

Maud Page 

in admiration of the Pacific barkcloth samples brought home by early explorers, 

elizabeth Cook embroidered and fashioned a waistcoat from this cloth for her 

husband’s expected return in 1780. 1 Captain Cook, however, never felt its supple and 

silky texture on his skin: only his bones knew the material, when these were carefully 

bundled in hawaiian barkcloth after his violent death at Kealakekua bay in 1779. 

barkcloth — wrapped around chiefly bodies, dancers, brides, grooms, babies and the 

deceased, or offered as ceremonial gifts — is the subject of the ‘Paperskin’ exhibition, 

and conjures precious narratives from the Pacific. 

Across one third of the world, and over many centuries, Pacific people have been 

creating, adapting and repeating designs on the fibrous barkcloth surface. These 

creations can be utilitarian, but most are still used in important ceremonies. some 

barkcloths record the passage of time, such as the Tongan ngatu featured in 

‘Paperskin’, which depicts Tonga’s World War Two alliances. 2 similarly, Niuean hiapo 

was sometimes used as parchment to inscribe the names of people and tracts of land, 

which often indicate the date the hiapo were created. 3 in other cultures, such as that 

of Papua New Guinea’s baining people, barkcloth is used to construct impermanent, 

intricate sculptures dedicated to transcendence of the temporal world. 

Whatever the intent, most barkcloths exhibit an extraordinary array of dexterously 

applied geometric forms that transfix the eye. From the fine crosshatch work of the 

solomon islands and Futuna practitioners to the bold, angular lines in Fijian textiles, and 

to the combination of straight and curved mark-making on Papuan barkcloths, there is 

in each an aesthetic of symmetry and dynamism. ‘Paperskin’ celebrates this art form, 

accentuating the diversity of its two-dimensional and sculptural practice while also 

noting some of the striking synergies in both pattern and use. 

To those outside the communities in which they are generated, barkcloth’s visual 

idiom is largely incomprehensible. 4 in Papua New Guinea, for example, much of the 

11

information in barkcloth designs is not meant to be shared with outsiders. The Omie 

women from Oro (or Northern) Province, on the country’s north-east coast, speak of 

the cloths as their ‘wisdom’ and, of the symbols in their works, will recount only those 

intended for outsiders. The titles of their nioje (barkcloths) refer to the rich, volcanic 

landscape that dominates their villages, including Mount lamington, mountains with 

clouds, jungle vines, tree bark, spider webs, frogs, and the backbones of mountain fish. 

Yet, each woman imagines this same landscape differently. some like Vivian Marumi 

can have entirely different interpretations of the same subject — one version of ‘jungle 

vines’ shows row upon row of symmetrically freehand horizontal lines as thick as a 

canopy. Another images this same jungle as chaotic and filled with spirals, diamond 

shapes and blocks of colour. This interpretive freedom is bountiful and produces an 

incredible diversity in barkcloths made within the same small, remote community. 

Australian writer Drusilla Modjeska spent time with these artists, and recounts that: 

When a woman comes into her vai hero (wisdom), it is not simply that she has learned 

the iconography, but that she lives it so fully that it forms, and informs, her relationship 

with the cloth. 5 

Modjeska’s engagement with the nioje, and her attempt to divulge customary 

knowledge of the work and practice to a Western audience, is evocative of how other 

barkcloth from the Pacific can be viewed: 

While the alphabet of motifs can be named, it is absorbed in such a way that parts do 

not require naming. The iconography works not by being broken into separate elements, 

but by a complex patterning of sensation and image that is not translatable — a way of 

seeing that is affective as well as instructive. 6 

As with much other Pacific barkcloth, the Omie’s nioje is a physical manifestation of 

the makers — who they are, their locality, their history and their cosmology. Titles 

of abstract works, such as ‘clan history’ and ‘wisdom’, allude to these textiles’ 

genealogical memory. The Omie say their wisdom is intertwined with the wellbeing of 

12 

ABOVE 

Vivian Marumi 

Papua New Guinea b.1980 

Omie people, Oro Province 

Odunege 1 (Jungle vines 1) 2006 

Barkcloth, dye / 142 x 114cm / 

Purchased 2007. Queensland Art 

Gallery Foundation 

RIGHT 

Vivian Marumi 

Odunege 4 (Jungle vines 4) 

(detail) 2006 



Gallery Foundation

Mount lamington. its eruption in 1951, the resulting deaths of 4000 of their Orokaivian 

neighbours and their own dislocation is interpreted as a consequence of the war on the 

Kokoda Trail which, among other horrors, grounded the dead soldiers’ restless spirits. 

some Omie blamed the eruption on the persistence of customary practices over those 

of Christianity, and proceeded to erase many of them. As a consequence, initiation 

ceremonies and the ensuing tattooing of clan insignia on the body ceased and designs 

were instead transposed to barkcloth. Artist Nerry Keme has said, ‘i paint on barkcloth 

the designs that were on my grandparents’ bodies’. 7 These materialise on the nioje as 

three small concentric circles, repeated in several configurations across the textile, and 

were once confined to the area around the navels of her ancestors. in reviewing this 

dynamic transposition, Modjeska refers to these as ‘double skin’ designs. 

When speaking about barkcloth, the allusion to marked skin is particularly evocative 

and has been used in connection with other Pacific practices. Anthropologist Alfred 

Gell noted that the Marquesans called their full-body tattoos pahu tiki, which translates 

as ‘wrapping in images’. researching samoan tattooing practices, he later concluded 

that they functioned as a second skin — wrapping, protecting and containing the 

person’s essence. The similarity of motifs from samoan tattoos to their siapo (barkcloth) 

is evident in works from the collection of Wellington’s Museum of New Zealand Te Papa 

Tongarewa, such as a 1940s example composed of horizontal rows of triangles. 8 Many 

Pacific peoples, most notably Tongans and Fijians, also wrap their bodies in barkcloth 

for important ceremonies. like tattooing, the cloth confers an entire matrix of meaning 

on the bearer. A drawing from 1877 shows a Fijian chief layered head to toe in masi with 

an accompanying description around that time, claiming that over 200 metres of cloth 

could be used for this purpose. 

There are many accounts of barkcloth being treated as an extension of the body — an 

extension of the skin. samoans would wrap barkcloth around the bride, and the material 

would then be ritually stained by the first intercourse. 9 Fijians rubbed turmeric on their 

The Tui Nadrau, dressed in masi 

for ceremonial presentation. 

Drawn from life by Theodor 

Kleinschmidt, Natuatuacoko, 

October, 1877 / Fiji Museum 

Collection 

Masi (detail) unknown 

Fiji 

Barkcloth, dye / 94.5 x 127.5cm / 



masi as well as on the bodies of a new mother and baby, binding them indistinguishably 

in this sweet-smelling, warm, earthy spice. likewise, the dead were also impregnated 

with turmeric and laid upon masi in their graves. 10 in 1920s Collingwood bay, Papua New 

Guinean women used to crawl around the village beneath a barkcloth when mourning 

their husbands, the cloth isolating them from sight and contact. 11 

Archaeologists Chris ballard and Meredith Wilson have posited a relationship between 

Melanesian rock art designs and those on tapa, specifically in mortuary contexts. The 

motifs, they argue, transfer between the two media and also appear in tattoos, carvings 

and engravings. 12 As ballard has said: 

Most of the rock art sites with tapa motifs are burial sites, with human remains in cliff 

niches or caves, and there are lots of instances of tapa being used to cover the bones, 

as a form of surrogate skin. 13 

Other scholars have also pointed to the link between designs found on ancient 

Pacific lapita pottery, tattooing and barkcloths, alluding to a complex aesthetic that is 

revitalised and used in a number of different art forms. 14 This ubiquitous transference 

of motifs can be understood as a method of communication (particularly as the Pacific 

region had no written language prior to european contact), and its continued use 

suggests an audience for whom these symbols represent a particular sense of being 

and place. 

For the baining people of the mountainous Gazelle Peninsula of New britain, Papua 

New Guinea, the creation of barkcloth masks enacts an intricate relationship with both 

their everyday agricultural subsistence and that of the spirits, particularly those of the 

recently departed. The ten baining masks in ‘Paperskin’ represent only a portion of the 

sculptures being made today, and include works from throughout the peninsula. 15 The 

masks are worn by men, with rare exceptions, such as the two Siviritki with fringes and 

accompanying fibre skirts that camouflage the dancer. each of the ten masks — except 

14 15

for the four-metre-high, three-pronged work — exhibit the baining characteristics of 

large, accentuated eyes, accompanied by vibrant designs painted directly onto the 

barkcloth in a restricted palette of red and black. 

These complex sculptures are used for a single ceremony and then discarded, 

even though they consume much of the villagers’ time and resources. The abstract 

designs featured on both sides are drawn mostly from memory, allowing for individual 

interpretation and change. Although customarily using designs drawn from nature — 

such as wild vines, insects or even pig intestines (the latter being a pattern used in 

several masks in ‘Paperskin’) — more recent designs include those derived from car 

tyre treads, mission crosses and manufactured cloth, as well as introduced figurative 

elements, such as flags and the ‘thumbs up’ gesture. 

The masks are produced for day or night ceremonies and represent female and male 

spirits in the form of animals or composite beings, such as bird–humans or snake– 

birds. Day dances are commonly associated with the commemoration of the dead and 

with the cyclical fertility of harvests and gardens, while night fire dances are thought to 

pertain to male initiation. 

A 1931 written account of a night fire ceremony is remarkably similar to more recent 

accounts, from the 1970s to the mid 2000s, as described by collector harold Gallasch. 

This points to the continued relevance of the practice despite the advent of modernity. 16 

each begins by noting the anticipation of the villagers following a long period of mask 

preparation, which occurs in locations inaccessible to women and children. Pigs are killed, 

food is distributed and a large bonfire ignited in the centre of the village. Gallasch recounts: 

. . . [A]t its zenith the chanting and drumming increased in tempo, as if in great 

urgency. Sweeping in from the blackness of the night, of the jungle, came the 

apparition of a bush spirit, a large white face outlined in red and black, large eyes to 

see in the darkness. As it came closer the disembodied face, shrouded behind the 

16 

ABOVE 

Kavat masks in performance, 

Malasaet village, East New Britain 

Province, Papua New Guinea, 

2009 / Image courtesy: John Wilson 

RIGHT 

Gabriel Asekia 

Papua New Guinea, b. Unknown 

Sibali Baining people, East New 

Britain Province 

Anui Lagun 

Papua New Guinea, b. Unknown 



Mandas mask c. 1995 

Barkcloth, dye, felt pen, cane / 

410 x174 x 40cm / Collection: 

Harold Gallasch, Hahndorf, South 

Australia 

17

18 

Kavat mask (front and back) 1971 


Kairak Baining people, East New 


Barkcloth, paper, dye, felt 

pen, wood and cane / 135 x 

133 x 60cm / Purchased 

2009. Queensland Art Gallery 

Foundation Grant. 

croton leaves, was propelled on black legs, pounding in time with the drumming, 

racing forwards, reversing, then stomping ever closer, the head swaying and 

pirouetting . . . children screamed in fear and ran to escape. In one last, swift burst 

of fervour, the masked apparition turned, raced and jumped in to the centre of the 

bonfire. There, for a few long seconds it stomped and twisted, burning sticks and 

embers scattering in all directions. 17 

The baining masks in ‘Paperskin’ bear the traces of their performance: soot from fires, 

and the remnants of dyes and oils used to paint and perfume the dancer’s skin. 

however, these masks are more than theatrical devices: they allow for an interaction 

with, and a continuation of, a specific cosmology. living in the Gazelle Peninsula in the 

1970s, theologians Karl hesse and Theo Aerts recorded that the ‘baining worldview 

accepts as it were two worlds, in which the other one (a rimbab) is the replica of this 

world’. 18 The invisibility of the rimbab becomes visible in the dances. Masked, their 

bodies adorned with paint and leaves, the dancers become the manifestation of spirits: 

They show the forces of nature — but at the same time also their limitations — the 

power of man, and the ambiguity of his relationship with that which is constantly 

beyond his immediate grasp. 19 

in many cultures across the Pacific, barkcloth continues to be significant. The 

deliberate repetition of geometric patterns has enabled a visual idiom historically linking 

barkcloth with other important cultural practices such as tattooing and weaving, as 

well as defunct art forms such as rock engravings and lapita pottery. recognition 

and appreciation of these designs has ensured the art form’s ongoing practice. On 

a fibrous surface, using a restricted colour palette and limited combinations of linear 

and curvilinear non-figurative designs, barkcloth makers have created extraordinarily 

diverse works that mediate the social and spiritual transformation of both individuals 

and groups. 

For some, the need to sustain this practice — to work communally, and to have goods 

to give and exchange — is so strong that, even when lacking the essential materials, 

they continue to innovate. in the mid 1990s in sydney’s west, for example, susana 

Kaafi gathered a group of women together to cut and glue interfacing material into long 

strips. laying them onto a large makeshift table in Kaafi’s backyard, they then painted 

the strips — using the dust scraped from red bricks — with the gridded emblems of the 

Tongan monarchy alongside stylised images of the sydney Opera house. 

Maud Page is Curator, Contemporary Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art. 

19

ACKNOWleDGMeNT 

i would like to acknowledge the 

research and thoughtful input 

of ruth McDougall, Curatorial 

Assistant, Asian and Pacific Art, 

Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of 

Modern Art to ‘Paperskin’. 

eNDNOTes 

1 Peter sharrad, ‘Trade and 

textiles in the Pacific and india’, 

in Diana Wood Conroy and 

emma rutherford, Fabrics 

of Change: Trading Identities 

[exhibition catalogue], university 

of Wollongong, NsW, p.14. 

2 see Adrienne Kaeppler, 

‘The structure of Tongan 

barkcloth design’, in Pacific 

Art: Persistence, Change and 

Meaning, Anita herle, Nick 

stanley, Karen stevenson and 

robert l Welsch (eds), Crawford 

house Publishing, hindmarsh, 

sA, 2002, pp.291–309. 

3 John Pule in John Pule and 

Nicholas Thomas, Hiapo: 

Past and Present in Niuean 

Barkcloth, university of Otago 

Press, Dunedin, 2005, p.47. 

4 simon Kooijman in his seminal 

and often quoted 1972 text on 

barkcloth, Tapa in Polynesia, 

thought that further study was 

needed on the names given to 

barkcloth patterns to decipher 

some of the meanings, but 

concluded that, ‘in the present 

state of our knowledge 

they have no interpretative 

significance’ and therefore did 

not include any. There has been 

some attempt at adding to this 

body of knowledge, but by and 

large, there remains remarkably 

little written information on 

barkcloth motifs across 

Polynesia and Melanesia. 

One pertinent example is rod 

ewins’s 1982 research on 

Fijian motifs (originally related 

to mats) and his more recent 

study of these in Staying Fijian: 

Vatulele Island Barkcloth and 

Social Identity, Crawford house 

Publishing, hindmarsh, sA, 

and university of hawaii Press, 

honolulu, 2009. 

5 Drusilla Modjeska, ‘This 

place, our art’, in Omie: The 

Barkcloth Art of Omie, [exhibition 

catalogue], Annandale Galleries, 

sydney, 2006, p.16. 

6 Modjeska, in Omie: The 

Barkcloth Art of Omie, p.16. 

rod ewins, speaking on Fijian 

masi (barkcloth), also states: 

‘Thus it is the totality of the 

pattern that gives meaning, 

and no one component of the 

pattern can carry more than a 

small part of the meaning by 

itself’, in Staying Fijian: Vatulele 

Island Barkcloth and Social 

Identity, p.147. 

7 Omie: The Barkcloth Art of 

Omie, p.29. 

8 Caption details: Siapo mamanu, 

samoa, barkcloth, dye / 173.5 x 

128.2cm / Collected by sir Guy 

richardson Powles c.1949–60. 

Gift of Michael Powles, 2001 / 



9 Nicholas Thomas, ‘The case 

of the misplaced ponchos: 

speculations concerning the 

history of cloth in Polynesia’, 

in Clothing the Pacific, Chloe 

Colchester (ed.), berg, Oxford, 

2003, p.90. 

10 simon Kooijman, Tapa in the 

Pacific, bernice P. bishop 

Museum bulletin 234, bishop 

Museum Press, honolulu, 

hawai‘i, 1972, p358. 

11 roger Neich and Mick 

Pendergrast, Pacific Tapa, David 

bateman, Auckland Museum, 

Auckland, 1997, p.136. 

12 Chris ballard, email to the 

author, 4 March 2009. 

13 rod ewins has also observed 

that human remains were 

found wrapped in black masi in 

a mortuary cave in Vanualevu, 

Fiji, in Staying Fijian: Vatulele 

Island Barkcloth and Social 

Identity, p.138. 

14 Most of Papua New Guinea, 

the outer islands and parts of 

the solomon islands have been 

inhabited for over 40 000 years. 

The rest of the Pacific was settled 

by speakers of Austronesian 

languages from south-east 

Asia approximately 4000 years 

ago. This expansion is marked, 

in particular, by the distinctive 

Barkcloth (detail) 19th century 


Doriri people, Oro Province 


Collected by Captain F.R. Barton, 

1901. Donated 1966 / Collection: 


pottery style known as lapita. 

15 it includes work by the simbali 

people in the south of the 

Gazelle Peninsula, the Chachet 

in the north-west, and the 

uramot and Kairak people in 

the central and central-east 

regions of the tip of this New 

britain island. 

16 see W.J. read, ‘A snake dance 

of the baining’, in Oceania, 

vol. 3, 1931–32, pp.232–37. 

17 harold Gallasch, letter to the 

author, 20 July 2009. 

18 Karl hesse and Theo Aerts, 

Baining Life and Lore, university 

of Papua New Guinea Press, 

Port Moresby, 1996, p.41. 

19 hesse and Aerts, Baining Life 

and Lore, p.41. 

20 21

Hiapo (detail) 19th century 


Barkcloth, dye / 97 x 216cm / Gift 

of A. Hamilton, 1912 / Collection: 

Museum of New Zealand Te 

Papa Tongarewa 

Beyond the paperskin 

Sean Mallon 

My grandfather was buried in Whenuatapu Cemetery, on a gentle hillside near Porirua 

City, in New Zealand. his casket was wrapped in a large Tongan ngatu. he was 

samoan and a matai (chief) in our extended family, and he was laid to rest in cold clay 

soil, an ocean away from home. 

One of my museum colleagues, a Tongan, was preparing human skulls for special 

storage in Te Papa’s wahi tapu. 1 she chose to individually wrap each skull in small 

sheets of plain barkcloth from Tonga. like my grandfather, these human remains, 

collected in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from Papua New Guinea, were far 

from their place of origin. 

Another former colleague was married in Newtown, Wellington, in a flowing wedding 

dress made from undecorated barkcloth from Fiji and Tonga. she walked down the 

aisle of the Congregational Christian Church of samoa on a length of ngatu more than 

12 metres long. 

in the 2005 Auckland secondary schools’ Polyfest dance competition, a samoan 

fuataimi for Auckland Girls’ Grammar school wore a dress made from ngatu. she led 

her dance troupe to first place in front of a captive audience on the ‘samoan stage’. 2 

The use of barkcloth in these different situations fascinates me. how is it that Tongan 

tapa can officiate as a wrapping, a garment and a draping in cultural situations that are 

not Tongan? What enables barkcloth to move between cultural contexts and functions? 

Why wrap Papua New Guinean trophy skulls in Tongan barkcloth? What guides the 

choices that allow this to happen? Are there other aesthetic dimensions in the layers of 

this special cloth? These questions permit us to probe for the significance of barkcloth 

among the contemporary diasporas of the Pacific. They allow us to consider barkcloths 

as mediators of actions that are not reliant on its markings, and to ask whether the art of 

barkcloth is contained in the markings of its ‘paper skin’, or beneath and beyond them. 

23

Traffic in ideas and cultural material is not new to Polynesia and its peoples. since at 

least the 1700s, Tonga, samoa and Fiji have influenced each other culturally and have 

been connected through networks of exchange. Textiles, whales’ teeth, tattooing and 

people were among the commodities that moved between islands. in the twenty-first 

century, the sharing and appropriation of cultural material continues within the island 

archipelagos and beyond. in New Zealand, this sharing is sometimes conspicuous, in 

a cultural milieu where the assertion of ethnic distinctions is important, as much as the 

formation of cultural alliances is strategic. 

in ‘Paperskin’, the decorated barkcloths, displayed in warm, artificial light, offer a 

view that highlights design, composition, symmetry, and the creative impulses of 

individuals and groups. This type of presentation encourages us to see barkcloth with 

a heightened sense of its surface qualities, and enhances the possibilities for viewing 

these textiles as creative works. it also offers us a chance to examine the patterns, 

linger over motifs and look for cultural and individual distinctions; to see the differences 

and similarities across this medium. The art of barkcloth is also evident in the labourintensive 

working of the raw materials, the preparation and beating of the cloth and 

fibres, and the manufacture of pigments and dyes. 

‘Paperskin’ is a departure from presentations of barkcloth as the backdrop to other 

artefacts, common in the museum exhibitions of the past. There is something more 

at work here, something not overtly named in the exhibition, but intrinsic to it — in the 

curation and selection of the barkcloths, and in the creation of the works themselves. 

We often think of barkcloth in its decorated, finished form. however, while barkcloth is 

often beautifully decorated, given as a gift, or wrapped around objects or people, it is 

also a raw material giving shape and texture to things. barkcloth helps manifest social 

processes and cultural values. it mediates in ceremonies and events, and its uses and 

value often transcend its appearance, its surface decorations and artistic intent. The art 

of barkcloth, the art of tapa, is neither paper thin nor skin deep. 

in New Zealand-based Pacific island communities, familiarity with barkcloth does not 

always indicate an awareness of the specificities of its origin. barkcloth is often used like 

an old-time museum display: it serves as a backdrop at community meetings, at news 

conferences; it hangs in community buildings, politicians’ offices, in school hallways. 

it is also used in presentations, in funerals and weddings, or as a ceremonial garment. 

in these situations, barkcloth is almost always Tongan or Fijian in origin, due to the 

continuity of the art form and scale of production on those islands. samoan barkcloth 

is not produced in similar sizes and quantities. Many Pacific islanders can visually 

distinguish a Fijian masi from a Tongan ngatu, although they may not always know the 

indigenous terms to describe them. Despite their specific cultural origins, they are often 

generically referred to as tapa. 3 

Why is this so? it seems that although masi and ngatu have distinctive markings, 4 

Pacific peoples in New Zealand find uses for them that transcend their culture of origin. 

As textiles, they can convey meaning beyond the motifs that signal their Tongan-ness, 

their Fijian-ness. it is as if these elements, while distinctive and readable, are not always 

relevant. The textiles and the people who use them are not bound to the nation. 

24 

Siapo mamanu (detail) 1940s 

Samoa 


Collected by Sir Guy Richardson 

Powles c.1949–60. Gift of Michael 

Powles, 2001 / Collection: 


Tongarewa

26 

Pare’eva (mask) unknown 

Cook Islands, Mangaia, 

(attributed) 

Barkcloth, dye / 66cm x 30cm x 

20cm / Collected by T.W. Kirk. Gift 

of Masonic Lodge, Paraparaumu, 

1950 / Collection: Museum of New 


This often happens when objects travel; when they are used to mediate new social 

situations in new places. in art forms such as music, dance, tattooing and oratory, 

there are innovations reflecting location-specific circumstances. The greater the 

distance that tapa (or other cultural products) travel in institutional, spatial and temporal 

terms, knowledge related to them becomes increasingly ‘partial, contradictory and 

differentiated’. 5 As ngatu or masi moves further from its place of origin, the narratives, 

knowledge and contexts that give meaning to it in one place fragment and become 

less clear, eventually reflecting new ‘local’ concerns, transmitting some key cultural 

messages, and taking on new ones. 

Tapa may be admired for their beautiful decoration, but they are also a medium 

for negotiating the politics of relationships and cultural identity. The further a group 

is away from home, the more charged or urgent expressions of ethnic or cultural 

identity can become. Groups of people will often temporarily seek out, latch onto and 

express identity through cultural practices in order to make sense of the particular 

circumstances in which they find themselves. serving this purpose, tapa does its 

‘cultural’ work not only through the pigment that decorates its surface, but also 

through the fibres comprising the cloth itself. 

in the case of my grandfather’s burial casket, the ngatu in which it was wrapped was 

a way of reconnecting him to his island home, not through a cloth that was samoan, 

but through a cloth that was foreign to the cold clay soil, a cloth that was indigenous to 

a place beyond New Zealand’s shores. it also highlighted the fact that, while he lived 

the last decades of his life with us in New Zealand, he was of another place. he was a 

samoan, a Pacific islander, and the tapa helped to bridge this distance, reconnecting 

him to his island identity despite the ngatu’s Tongan motifs. similarly, my colleague’s 

wrapping of the trophy skulls in barkcloth was perhaps a means of reconnecting 

them with a tangible representation of something ‘Pacific’, a way of separating them 

and protecting them while they were in the liminal space of a museum storeroom. My 

colleague’s barkcloth wedding garment was beautiful, and the church itself was draped 

in an extravagant length of ngatu down the aisle. The dress was remarkable: its texture; 

its plain, natural colour; the heavy drape of the cloth. undecorated with the freehand 

motifs of a samoan siapo mamanu or the rubbed-on patterns of a siapo ’elei, observers 

remarked on its similarity to raw silk, its tactility. 6 For the wearer, the garment was valued 

more than for its cosmetic appearance, and reflected ‘a love and passion for things Pacific’. 7 

in the examples i have described above, the functional value of barkcloth, as a 

decorated object, is less important than its symbolic value. On these occasions, 

barkcloth mediates and creates relationships; it bridges distance and time. The use 

of barkcloth in these situations shows that tapa mediates actions that are not solely 

reliant on the markings on its surface. The cloth itself can be important — the texture, 

the memory imbued in its layers, the worked fibres and the energy of the maker. 

While we know that the value attached to materials often affects the value attached to 

things, they are not the same. 8 The materiality of barkcloth, its geo-cultural origins and 

‘otherness’ are aesthetic dimensions that are easily overlooked, but they are important 

in the Pacific island diaspora, and particularly in a world where the production of 

cultural material is less fixed and its movement more global. 

27

in New Zealand, people share a range of meanings and value around tapa despite the 

culturally distinct manner in which they are marked. in the diaspora, tapa mediates a 

form of cultural recovery in a global maelstrom. i think that, for many Pacific islanders 

in New Zealand, regardless of their origins or descent, barkcloth is symbolic of an 

idealised past (or present) way of life that is geographically distant. Tapa is a tangible 

link to ‘a past’ as well as a signifier of cultural conditions in the present. indeed, Fijian 

Nina Nawalowalo has described masi as a ‘map back to my own cultural roots’ with 

‘the fibres’ providing a way back ‘to a time and place’. 9 What the case studies above 

have in common is the deployment of tapa as a tool for bringing the past closer to the 

present. Tapa, like other cultural productions, is used in ‘the mediation of ruptures of 

time and history — to heal disruptions in cultural knowledge, historical memory, and 

identity between generations’, people and places. 10 in this way, people can lay claim to 

a cultural or ethnic identity through the process of using a ‘thing’, whether it is tapa, the 

haka, or tattoos. The ceremonies tapa mediates, like the events for which it serves as a 

backdrop, are expressions of connectedness. 

Ngatu is also made from synthetic material in transnational Tongan communities. 

like their organic counterparts, synthetic ngatu pieces are used in presentations, as 

wrappings, and are also given as gifts. Tongan ngatu artists who produce synthetic 

tapa indicate a preference for indigenous materials, but, they say, they will use synthetic 

tapa for their presentations if necessary. As anthropologist roger Neich has argued, for 

items of samoan cultural value such as the ie toga (cloth for toga) 11 , often the aesthetic 

focus is not only on how the item appears, but also what it represents for the event or 

context in which it mediates the ceremony and actions surrounding its presentation or 

use. This would explain how Tongan ngatu can be used at a samoan wedding, or a 

funeral, or worn by a samoan chief’s daughter in a performance. 12 

This is not to say the markings on tapa’s paperskin are unimportant, but to highlight 

that they coexist with other dimensions of meaning and interpretation. We seek the 

‘materiality’ of barkcloth not only for its markings but also for its qualities as something 

made by human hands, a cloth crafted. We seek its power to bring the past, people, 

history and the islands closer — to make them tangible. barkcloth connects us in a way 

that fascinates, entrances and inspires us. 

The meanings of barkcloth are as unfixed and changing as the identities of the people 

who use them. if an object’s value is dependent on context we cannot assume a 

completeness of cultural transmission despite an increasingly transnational and 

interconnected world. When thinking about barkcloth we have to consider disjunctions 

between the spaces where they originate and the meanings people give to, and make 

through, them in new locations. These circumstances create room for us to celebrate 

barkcloth as a form of beautifully inscribed paper skin from Pacific places distant in time 

and location. They also allow us to probe beyond this veneer for a significance that is 

deeper and closer to home. 

Sean Mallon is senior Curator, Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. 

28 

Siapo or Ngatu c.1955 

Samoa or Tonga 



Powles c. 1949-60. Gift of 

Michael Powles, 2001. Collection: 

Museum of New Zealand Te 

Papa Tongarewa 

29

Masi (and detail) late 19th century 

Fiji 

Barkcloth, dye 

170.5 x 191cm / A.H. Turnbull 

Collection. Presented by the 

Trustees of the Turnbull Estate, 

1918 / Collection: Museum of New 


eNDNOTes 

1 A Maori term for sacred space 

or place. 

2 Fuataimi literally means ‘to 

measure time’, and refers to 

a person who guides both 

dance and music, conducting 

the choir as it accompanies 

the dancers with singing and 

movement. 

3 ironically, tapa is a samoan 

term, which refers to 

undecorated barkcloth. 

4 There are various regional 

styles, as well as individual 

variations in Fiji. 

5 Arjun Appadurai (ed.), 

The Social Life of Things: 

Commodities in Cultural 

Perspective, Cambridge 

university Press, Cambridge, 

uK, 1986, p.57. 

6 Paula Chan Cheuk, interview 

with author, Auckland, 1999. 

7 Jackie leota-ete, ‘Te Papa 

buys unique wedding dress’, 

in New Zealand Weddings: 

The Complete Guide, starlight 

Publications, Christchurch, 1998. 

8 robert Friedel, ‘some matters 

of substance’, in s lubar 

and W David Kingery (eds), 

History from Things: Essays on 

Material Culture, smithsonian 

institution Press, Washington 

DC, 1993, p.46. 

9 Nina Nawalowalo, brochure for 

Vula, The Conch, Wellington, 

undated, p.5. 

10 Faye Ginsburg, ‘indigenous 

media: Faustian contract or 

global village?’ in Cultural 

Anthropology: Journal for 

the Society of Cultural 

Anthropology, vol.6, no.1, 

1991, p.104. 

11 Toga is a category of exchange 

valuables. 

12 roger Neich, ‘Processes of 

change in samoan arts and 

crafts’, in P.J.C. Dark (ed.), 

Development of the Arts in the 

Pacific [occasional papers], 

no.1, Pacific Arts Association, 

National Museum, Wellington, 

1983, pp.42–6. 

31

32 

Marsang 

Papua New Guinea, b.1918 



Siviritki 1974 

Barkcloth, dye, felt pen, natural 

fibre, wood and cane / Two 

components: 160 x 45.5 x 50cm 

(mask); 97cm (fibre) / Collected 

by Harold Gallasch, 1974 / 

Collection: Queensland Museum 

The Pacific perspective on 

the Queensland Museum: 

tradition is present in the past and here in the present 

Imelda Miller 

barkcloth brings together sculpture, music, art, dance, ceremony and story. everything 

in the ‘Paperskin’ exhibition is part of somebody’s story about their identity and 

connection to place. The barkcloths and sculptures have their own stories, which exist 

as the past, in the present and for the future. 

in this exhibition we can liken the collected barkcloths to a favourite novel — albeit one 

that is all middle without the beginning or the end, or all beginning and end without 

the middle. Consider that the words from a wise storyteller’s mouth become the story 

written on the pages of this book, dance and music become the beautiful illustrations, 

and the ceremony is the experience of reading from it. sometimes, we go back to our 

favourite pages because something in the present that has changed the way we think. 

When we revisit those pages, there are always more lessons to be learnt about the 

story being told. 

Museums collect and preserve evidence in the form of objects and information about 

them. in doing so, museums also collect parts of culture and build stories. Museum 

collections tell us about the cultural and physical environments in which objects 

originated, their many uses, and the skill, status and mark of the maker. As time passes 

and attitudes change, more indigenous peoples across the world are accessing 

collections held in institutions to reconnect and bring to life these objects to tell stories 

about the person, the people, the community, and their connection to place in the past 

and the present. 

Queensland Museum has been collecting for nearly 150 years. its Pacific collection has 

approximately 26 000 objects and 4000 historical photographs, and its large collection 

of barkcloths display a balance between masculine and feminine, old and new. 

Queensland is strongly connected to the people in the Pacific, particularly Melanesia. 

Melanesia includes the Torres strait islands, Papua New Guinea, the solomon islands, 

Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. From 1884, responsibility for british New Guinea 

33

ested with Queensland, and these links continued after Federation until Papua New 

Guinea’s independence in 1975. The associations continue with trade and family 

connections between Papua New Guinea and Torres strait islanders, the introduction 

of south sea islander labour to the Queensland sugar industry, and the new wave of 

Pacific islanders coming to Queensland today. These historical accounts can each be 

demonstrated through the Queensland Museum’s collection. 

Tapa, ngatu, kapa, masi, lepau and siapo are names used for barkcloth across the 

Pacific. each place and people has its own unique story for barkcloth. some are made 

by women, others by men, some for cloth and some for masks, some are for everyday 

and others are for special ceremonies. each piece comes with its own unique story 

that has instruction on how it is to be made, how it is to worn, who is to wear it and 

the power that it holds in the ceremony, in dance or as a gift. For this exhibition, the 

Museum has focused on barkcloth from Melanesia, and the selected objects come 

from Papua New Guinea and the solomon islands. 

A major strength in the Queensland Museum collection is the comprehensive Papuan 

ethnographic material, collected by sir William Macgregor in the later decades of 

the nineteenth century. Macgregor had a background in medicine with scientific and 

humanitarian interests and he collected this material during his travels in Papua. in 

keeping with this vision that this collection would be kept in trust for the Papuan people, 

the Queensland Museum repatriated objects back to the Papua New Guinea National 

Museum between 1983 and 1995, and it was agreed that the Queensland Museum 

would keep a percentage of it. 1 The Macgregor Collection now totals 5627 objects. Not 

only aesthetically pleasing, these barkcloths also tell us stories about people. in Papua 

New Guinea, everyday tapa can include loincloths, wrap around skirts and cloaks. 

some groups decorate tapa with painted patterns, as the pieces in this exhibition show, 

while some attach beads and shells. Worn for ceremonies and rituals, Oro (or Northern) 

Province is one of the most well-known tapa-producing areas of Papua New Guinea. 2 

Dance object unknown 



Barkcloth, dye, cane / 28 x 205 x 

75.5cm / Collected by S.G. 



The barkcloth from Collingwood bay, Papua New Guinea, was collected by Macgregor 

and entered the Queensland Museum’s collections in 1897. 

The designs in the Papua New Guinea tapas are somewhat abstract and free-flowing, 

similar to those in Vanuatu and in contrast with those from santa Cruz and other 

Polynesian locations. Not much is known about use and manufacture of barkcloth 

(lepau) in santa Cruz. The barkcloth from santa Cruz came into the Queensland 

Museum’s collections in March 1899. These cloths are known to be worn by men in an 

apron-styled fashion, and they have been photographed being worn by important men 

like a tall cylinder around the top of the head. There was an absence of tapa-making 

between 1930 and 1970 in santa Cruz. 3 restrictions on practice; political, technical or 

environmental changes; the movement of people; or a change of interest: these can 

all contribute to such absences. however, everybody has the culture within them, and 

museum collections can help to trigger memories of, emotions about, and connections 

between, people and place. 

This is happening around the world for indigenous cultures, where people are strongly 

tied to place. The masks included in ‘Paperskin’ are deeply enmeshed in the spirit 

world of the people who made them. For those who believe in these spirits, the 

masks hold strong powers and are respected as part of that world. The eharo masks 

represent bush spirits, look like little bush animals and are used during ceremonies 

called Hevehe. used to interact with the spirit world, sometimes in a humorous way, 

and in a time before Christianity, 4 the size and diversity of these masks, sometimes 

decorated with feathers and hornbills, reflect the diverse Papua New Guinean cultures. 

The two-headed crocodile was used in eharo ceremonies, but there is little information 

regarding its use or representation. Collected between 1912 and 1914 in the Gulf 

Province, this beautiful work is made of barkcloth wrapped around a cane frame. 5 More 

research is required on this piece, but one day, someone somewhere will be reminded 

34 35

y this crocodile barkcloth of their connection to people, spirit and place, and they will 

be reignited. This is why it is important for Museum collections to be made accessible 

to communities through visits, repatriation and exhibitions. 

Pacific barkcloth comes in many forms, shapes and sizes, has many meanings, 

and plays an important part in maintaining the connections between people and 

place. Collections like the one held in Queensland Museum maintain a connection 

between people and place. They connect the people who create these works, and 

the movement that continues between Pacific countries and Australia. barkcloth is a 

beautiful aesthetic way to show that Pacific people have a presence in Queensland’s 

history and will continue to have a presence into the future. 

Imelda Miller is Assistant Curator, Torres strait islander and Pacific indigenous studies, Queensland Museum. 

eNDNOTes 

1 Patricia Mather, A Time for a 

Museum: The History of 

the Queensland Museum 

1862–1986, Queensland 

Museum, brisbane, 1986, 

pp.202–4. 

2 roger Neich and Mick 

Pendergrast, Pacific Tapa, 

David bateman, Auckland 

Museum, Auckland, 1997, p.133. 

36 

3 Neich and Pendergrast, p.125. 

4 robert l Welsch, Coaxing 

the Spirits to Dance: Art and 

Society in Papuan Gulf of New 

Guinea [exhibition catalogue], 

Nils Nadeau (ed.), hood 

Museum of Art, hanover, New 

hampshire, 2006, pp.23-9. 

5 Memoirs of the Queensland 

Museum, Queensland Museum, 

brisbane, vol.2, 1913, pp.9–23. 

ABOVE 

Mask unknown 


Chachet Baining people, East New 


Barkcloth, dye, cane / 90 x 52 x 

74cm / Collection: Queensland 

Museum 

OPPOSITE FROM TOP 

Woman from Wanigela, Oro 

Province, Papua New Guinea. 

Photograph taken by Percy 

J. Money c.1900 / Collection: 


Barkcloth (detail) unknown 


Collingwood Bay, Oro Province 


Collected by Sir William Macgregor, 

1897 / Collection: Queensland 

Museum 

37

Plates 

38 

Marsang 




Mandas mask 1975 

Barkcloth, dye, wood, natural fibres, 

feathers / 310 x 74.5 x 59cm / 

Collection: Harold Gallasch, 

Hahndorf, South Australia 

39

40 

Nerry Keme 



Obohutaigué & Dahorue (Tree 

bark and Omie mountains) 2006 




OPPOSITE 

Gioracka mask 1978 




Barkcloth, dye, wood, natural 

fibres, feathers / 154 x 85 x 35cm / 

Collection: Harold Gallasch, 

Hahndorf, South Australia 

41

42 

Barkcloth 19th century 




Collected by Captain F. R. Barton, 

1901 / Collection: 


Mask unknown 



Barkcloth, dye, cane / 57 x 




43







Museum 

Siapo mamanu unknown 

American Samoa, Tutuila 


Collected by Reverend Perkins, 

London Missionary Society, 1938. 

Gift of Mrs Roma Miller, 1986 / 



44 45

Masi bola unknown 

Fiji, Cakaudrove 




Mask unknown 







46 47

Barkcloth unknown 


Collingwood Bay, Oro Province 


Collected by Sir William Macgregor, 


Museum 

Kavat mask 1971 




Barkcloth, paper, dye, felt pen, 

wood and cane / 115 x 112 x 56cm / 


Gallery Foundation Grant 

48 49

Nemasitse 19th century 

Vanuatu, Eromanga (attributed) 


Gift of A. Hamilton, 1912. Collection: 


Tongarewa 

Hiapo 19th century 

Niue 




Tongarewa 

50 51

Lepau 19th century 

Ihilland Solomon issunt Islands, et a voluptatam 

Santa Cruz 

is Barkcloth, quae. Ant dye ea si / 26 ipsandit x 42cm vel / 

es Collected assitatqui 1899 untur / Collection: aut preste 

volorest Queensland fugiamus Museum conet porrum is 

Siapo unknown 

Futuna, Eddystan Island 


Ihilland The Oldman issunt Collection. et a voluptatam 

is Collected quae. Ant 1948 ea si / Collection: ipsandit vel 

es Museum assitatqui of New untur Zealand aut preste Te 

volorest Papa Tongarewa fugiamus conet porrum is 

52 53

Marsang 



Britain Province, 

Siviritki mask 1973 

Barkcloth, dye, felt pen, natural and 

synthetic fibre, wood and cane / 

Ihilland Two components: issunt et a voluptatam 83 x 70cm x 

is 21.5 quae. (mask); Ant ea 108cm si ipsandit (fibre) vel / 

es Purchased assitatqui 2009. untur Queensland aut preste Art 

volorest Gallery Foundation fugiamus conet porrum is 

Enos Levi 


Uramot Baining people, East New 

Britain Province, 


Barkcloth, dye, felt pen, wood and 

cane / 142 x 80 x 48cm / Purchased 


Foundation Grant 

54 55







Museum 



Popondetta, Oro Province 


Collected by Alan Queale. Donated 

by Mrs J. Finucane, 1983 / 

Collection: Queensland Museum 

56 57

Eharo mask unknown 




84.5 x 81cm / Collected by S.G. 







101.5 x 101.5cm / Collected by 

S.G. MacDonell, 1913 / Collection: 


58 59

60 

Stella Upia 



Dahorué & Nionihanoe (Omie 

mountains and jungle) 2006 




Siapo mamanu 1940s 

Samoa 



Powles c.1949–60. Gift of Michael 

Powles, 2001 / Collection: 


Tongarewa 

61

62 

Wuwana 

Papua New Guinea b.unknown 




Barkcloth, dye, felt pen, wood, 

natural fibres, cassowary feathers / 

400 x 75 x 55cm / Collection: 

Harold Gallasch, Hahndorf, South 

Australia 


Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz 


Collected 1899 / Collection: 


63

64 

Siapo mamanu c.1905 

Samoa 

Barkcloth, dye / 115.4 x 242cm / Gift 

of Thomas Trood, 1917 / Collection: 


Tongarewa 


Ihilland Niue (attributed) issunt et a voluptatam 

is Barkcloth, quae. Ant dye ea / si 105 ipsandit x 171.5cm vel / 

es Collection: assitatqui Museum untur aut of preste New 

volorest Zealand fugiamus Te Papa Tongarewa conet porrum is 

65

Masi 19th century 

Fiji 




Turnbull Estate 1918 / Collection: 


Tongarewa 

Stella Upia 



Sihaé 1 (Sahote clan design of 

fruit from the tree 1) 2006 




66 67

Mask unknown 







Kapa 1770s 

Hawai‘i 




Turnbull Estate, 1918 / Collection: 


Tongarewa 

68 69

Masi unknown 

Ihilland Fiji issunt et a voluptatam 

is Barkcloth, quae. Ant dye ea si / 94.5 ipsandit x 127.5cm vel / 

es Collection: assitatqui Museum untur aut of preste New 

volorest Zealand fugiamus Te Papa Tongarewa conet porrum is 






Tongarewa 

70 71

List of works 

1 Dating of works in this exhibition has often been difficult. ‘c’ (circa) 

dates are given as a guide only. 

2 The names of artists/makers of works in this exhibition are often not 

available from museum records. Where names are available they 

have been included in the list of works. 

3 Numbers shown in the last line of these captions indicate the 

artwork’s record number within the institution where it is held. 

4. Details of acquisition and/or donation are shown where known. 


Nerry Keme 



Obohutaigué & Dahorue (Tree 

bark and Omie mountains) 2006 

barkcloth, dye / 167 x 134cm / 


Gallery Foundation / Acc. 2007.213 

Vivian Marumi 







Vivian Marumi 







stella upia 



Sihaé 1 (Sahote clan design of 

fruit from the tree 1) 2006 




stella upia 



Dahorué & Nionihanoe (Omie 

mountains and jungle) 2006 






Kairak baining people, east New 

britain Province 

barkcloth, paper, dye, felt pen, wood 

and cane / 135 x 133 x 60cm 


Gallery Foundation Grant. 





barkcloth, paper, dye, felt pen, 

wood and cane / 115 x 112 x 56cm / 


Gallery Foundation Grant 


enos levi 


uramot baining people, east New 

britain Province, 


barkcloth, dye, felt pen, wood and 

cane / 142 x 80 x 48cm / Purchased 


Foundation Grant 

Marsang 



britain Province, 

Siviritki mask 1973 

barkcloth, dye, felt pen, natural and 

synthetic fibre, wood and cane / 

Two components: 83 x 70cm x 21.5 

(mask); 108cm (fibre) / Purchased 


Foundation 

Masi late 19th century 

Fiji 

barkcloth, dye 

170.5 x 191cm / A.h. Turnbull 

Collection. Presented by the Trustees 

of the Turnbull estate, 1918 / 

Collection: Museum of New Zealand 

Te Papa Tongarewa / Fe000826 



barkcloth, dye / 105 x 171.5cm / 



Siapo mamanu c.1905 

samoa 

barkcloth, dye / 115.4 x 242cm / Gift 

of Thomas Trood, 1917 / Collection: 


Tongarewa / Fe001425 

Ngatu 1940s 

Tonga 

barkcloth, dye / 196.4 x 160cm / Gift 

of Valerie Morris, 1989 / Collection: 



Siapo mamanu 1940s 

samoa 

barkcloth, dye / 173.5 x 128.2cm / 

Collected by sir Guy richardson 

Powles c.1949-60. Gift of Michael 

Powles, 2001 / Collection: Museum 

of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa / 

Fe011611 


Niue 

barkcloth, dye / 158 x 189cm / Gift 

of A. hamilton, 1912 / Collection: 



Kapa 1770s 

hawai’i 

barkcloth, dye / 63.5 x 129cm / A.h. 

Turnbull Collection. Presented by the 

Trustees of the Turnbull estate, 1918 / 


Te Papa Tongarewa / Fe001475/4 

Siapo unknown 

Futuna, eddystan island 

barkcloth, dye / 69.7 x 85.4cm / The 

Oldman Collection. Collected 1948 / 


Te Papa Tongarewa / Ol000216.s 

Masi bola unknown 

Fiji, Cakaudrove 



Te Papa Tongarewa / Fe004086/3 

Masi 19th century 

Fiji 

barkcloth, dye / 221 x 169cm / A.h. 

Turnbull Collection. Presented by the 

Trustees of the Turnbull estate 1918 / 



Siapo unknown 

samoa 

barkcloth, dye / 160cm (diam) / 

Collected 1885. Gift of Mr. D. 

Grahame, 1957 / Collection: Museum 

of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa / 

Fe003202 

Siapo mamanu unknown 

American samoa, Tutuila 

barkcloth, dye / 174.8 x 349cm / 

Collected by reverend Perkins, 

london Missionary society, 1938. 

Gift of Mrs roma Miller, 1986 / 



Masi unknown 

Fiji 

barkcloth,dye / 94.5 x 127.5cm / 



72 73




barkcloth, dye / 97 x 216cm / Gift 

of A.hamilton, 1912 / Collection: 


Tongarewa / Fe000268/1 

Siapo or Ngatu c. 1955 

samoa or Tonga 


Collected by sir Guy richardson 

Powles c. 1949-60. Gift of Michael 

Powles, 2001. Collection: Museum of 

New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa / 

Fe011614 

Nemasitse 19th century 

Vanuatu, eromanga (attributed) 


Gift of A. hamilton, 1912. Collection: 



Pare’eva (mask) unknown 

Cook islands, Mangaia, (attributed) 

barkcloth, dye / 66cm x 30cm x 

20cm / Collected by T.W. Kirk. Gift of 

Masonic lodge, Paraparaumu, 1950 / 





Popondetta, Oro Province 


Collected by Alan Queale. Donated 

by Mrs J Finucane, 1983 / Collection: 

Queensland Museum / e11959 



Collingwood bay, Oro Province 


Collected by sir William Macgregor, 


Museum / MAC5000 





Collected by Captain F. r. barton, 


Museum / e4836 









solomon islands, santa Cruz 





solomon islands, santa Cruz 











Marsang 




Siviritki 1974 

barkcloth, dye, felt pen, natural fibre, 

wood and cane / Two components: 

160 x 45.5 x 50cm (mask); 97cm 

(fibre) / Collected by harold Gallasch, 


Museum / e10025.1 & 10025.2 

Mask unknown 



barkcloth, dye, cane / 57 x 41 x 

20cm / Collected by s.G. MacDonell, 


Museum / e228 




barkcloth, dye, cane / 95.5 x 

101.5 x 101.5cm / Collected by 

s.G. MacDonell, 1913 / Collection: 





barkcloth, dye, cane / 128 x 84.5 x 



Museum / e217 

Dance object unknown 




75.5cm / Collected by s.G. 



Mask unknown 



barkcloth, dye, cane / 31.5 x 95 x 



Museum / e232 

Mask unknown 






Museum / e237 

Mask unknown 


Chachet baining people, east New 



74cm / Collection: Queensland 


harold Gallasch Collection 

Marsang 





barkcloth, dye, wood, natural fibres, 

feathers / 310 x 74.5 x 59cm / 

Collection: harold Gallasch, 

hahndorf, south Australia / b477 

Gabriel Asekia 

Papua New Guinea, b. unknown 

sibali baining people, east New 


Anui lagun 

Papua New Guinea, b. unknown 



Mandas mask c. 1995 

barkcloth, dye, felt pen, cane / 410 x 

174 x 40cm / Collection: harold 

Gallasch, hahndorf, south Australia / 

b800 

Gioracka mask 1978 




barkcloth, dye, wood, natural 

fibres, feathers / 154 x 85 x 35cm / 

Collection: harold Gallasch, 

hahndorf, south Australia / b917 

Wuwana 

Papua New Guinea b. unknown 




barkcloth, dye, felt pen, wood, 

natural fibres, cassowary feathers / 

400 x 75 x 55cm / Collection: harold 

Gallasch, hahndorf, south Australia / 

b845 

74 75

Selected bibliography 

Bonnemaison, J, Kaufmann, C, Huffman, K and Tyron, 

D (eds.). Arts of Vanuatu. Crawford House Publishing, 

Bathurst, NSW, 1996. 

Clark, Peter. Engini (Firedance). Gaulim Teachers College, 

Rabaul, 1976. 

Corbin, George A. ‘Baining and Sulka art in the Museum 

für Völkerkunde, Hamburg: An iconographic analysis’. 

Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde, vol.3, 

2003, pp.249–93. 

Corbin, George A. ‘Introduction: Art of the Chachet, 

Kairak, and Uramot Baining of New Britain, Papua New 

Guinea’ in Masking and Ritual Theater of the Baining 

and Gimi Peoples of Papua New Guinea [exhibition 

catalogue]. Lehman College Art Gallery, City University of 

New York, New York, 1986. 

Corbin, George A. Native Arts of North America, Africa, 

and the South Pacific: An Introduction. Harper and Row, 

New York, 1988. 

Dorney, Sean. ‘The Pacific Islands: Fragile but complex’. 

Artlines (Brisbane), no.3, 2009, pp.20–25. 

Ewins, Rod. Fijian Artefacts: The Tasmanian Museum 

and Art Gallery Collection. Tasmanian Museum and Art 

Gallery, Hobart, 1982. 

Ewins, Rod. Staying Fijian: Vatulele Island Barkcloth and 

Social Identity. Crawford House Publishing, Adelaide and 

University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2009. 

Ewins, Rod. ‘Symmetry and semiotics: the case of Fijian 

barkcloth figuration’ in Washburn, D (ed.). Embedded 

Symmetries, Natural and Cultural. University of New 

Mexico Press, New Mexico and Amerind Foundation, 

Albuquerque, 2004, pp.161–83. 

Fajans, Jane. They Make Themselves: Work and Play 

Among the Baining of Papua New Guinea. The University 

of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1997. 

Gregory, Bill and Modjeska, Drusilla. In The Shadow of a 

Volcano: The Barkcloth Art of Omie [exhibition catalogue]. 

Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth and Annandale Galleries, 

Sydney, 2007. 

Gregory, Bill and Modjeska, Drusilla. Omie: The Barkcloth 

Art of Omie [exhibition catalogue]. Annandale Galleries, 

Sydney, 2006. 

Gregory, Bill and Ryan, Jayne. Omie: The Art of Omie 

[exhibition catalogue]. Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 2008. 

Heermann, Ingrid (ed.). Form, Colour, Inspiration: Oceanic 

Art from New Britain [exhibition catalogue]. Arnoldsche, 

Stuttgart, 2001. 

Herda, Phyllis, Young-Leslie, Heather and Addo, Ping- 

Ann (eds). ‘Hybrid textiles: Pragmatic creativity and 

authentic innovations in Pacific cloth’. Pacific Arts: The 

Journal of the Pacific Arts Association, no.3–5, 2007 

[special issue]. 

Hesse, K and Aerts, T. Baining Life and Lore. University 

of Papua New Guinea Press, Port Moresby, 1996; 

reprinted from the original, published by the Institute of 

Papua New Guinea Studies, Port Moresby, 1982. 

Kaepler, Adrienne. ‘The structure of Tongan barkcloth 

design’ in Herle, A, Stanley, N, Stevenson, K and Welsch, 

RL (eds.). Pacific Art: Persistence, Change and Meaning. 

Crawford House Publishing, Adelaide, 2002, pp.291–308. 

Klein, Florence (ed.). Tapa: Ecorces et Décors d’Océanie 

[exhibition catalogue]. Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie, 

Noumea, 2001. 

Kooijman, Simon. Polynesian Barkcloth. Shire 

Publications, Princes Risborough, Aylesbury, Bucks, UK, 

1988 (Shire Ethnography, 7). 

Kooijman, Simon. ‘Tapa in Polynesia’. Bernice P Bishop 

Museum Bulletin, no.234, 1972. 

Kooijman, Simon. Tapa on Moce Island, Fiji: A Traditional 

Handicraft in a Changing Society. Brill Archive, London, 1977. 

Lal, Brij and Fortune, Kate (eds.). The Pacific Islands: 

An Encyclopedia. University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 

1999–2000. 

Leonard, Anne and Terrell, John. Patterns of Paradise: 

The Styles and Significance of Bark Cloth Around the 

World. Field Museum, Chicago, 1980. 

Neich, Roger. ‘Material culture in Western Samoa: 

Persistence and change’. National Museum of New 

Zealand Bulletin, no.23, 1985, pp.42–50. 

Neich, Roger and Pendergrast, Mick. Pacific Tapa. 

Auckland Museum, Auckland, 1997. 

Page, Maud. ‘Paperskin: Barkcloth across the Pacific’. 

Artlines (Brisbane), no.3, 2009, pp.10–13. 

Pinney, Christopher and Thomas, Nicholas (eds.). Beyond 

Aesthetics: Art and the Technologies of Enchantment. 

Berg Publishers, Oxford, 2001. 

Pule, John Puhiatau and Thomas, Nicholas. Hiapo: Past 

and Present in Niuean Barkcloth. University of Otago 

Press, Dunedin, 2005. 

Read, WJ. ‘A snake dance of the Baining’. Oceania, vol.3, 

1931–32, pp.232–37. 

Sharrad, Paul. ‘Trade and textiles in the Pacific and 

India’ in Conroy, Diana Wood and Rutherford, Emma 

(eds.). Fabrics of Change: Trading Identities, University of 

Wollongong, Wollongong, 2004, pp.12–26. 

Teilhet, Jehanne (ed.). Dimensions of Polynesia [exhibition 

catalogue]. Fine Arts Museum of San Diego, University of 

California, San Diego, 1973. 

Thomas, Nicholas. Entangled Objects: Exchange, 

Material Culture, and Colonialism in the Pacific. Harvard 

University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1991. 

Thomas, Nicholas. Oceanic Art. Thames and Hudson, 

London, 1995. 

Thomas, Nicholas, ‘The case of the misplaced ponchos: 

Speculations concerning the history of cloth in Polynesia’ 

in Colchester, Chloe (ed.). Clothing the Pacific. Berg 

Publishers, Oxford, 2003, pp.79–97. 

Were, Graham and Keuchler, Susanne (eds). Pacific 

Patterns. Thames and Hudson, London, 2005. 

Williams, FE. The Drama of Orokolo: The Social and 

Ceremonial Life of the Elema. Clarendon Press, 

Oxford, 1940. 

Winter, Joan G (ed). Talking Tapa: Pasifika Bark Cloth in 

Queensland [exhibition catalogue]. Brisbane Multicultural 

Arts Centre (BEMAC), Brisbane; Keeiara Press, 

Southport, Qld, 2009. 

Young, MW and Clark, J. An Anthropologist In Papua: 

Photography of FW Williams 1922–39. Crawford House 

Publishing, Adelaide, SA, 2001. 

76 77

Acknowledgments 

leNDers 

harold Gallasch, hahndorf, south Australia 

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington 

Queensland Art Gallery, brisbane 

Queensland Museum, brisbane 

PrOJeCT suPPOrT 

Thanks are extended to the many people and organisations who 

generously assisted with this project, particularly: 

Dr Chris ballard, Australian National university 

Kevin bond, inala elders Aboriginal & Torres strait Corporation 

Yvonne Carillo-huffman, Australian Museum 

Joan Collins and Musgrave Park Cultural Centre board of Management 

Valda Coolwell, brisbane Council of elders 

Dr barry Craig, south Australian Museum 

Ken Done 

Kirk huffman 

Vera huntink, Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority 

Penelope ikinger, Museum Victoria 

Associate Professor richard Moyle, university of Auckland 

Nina Nawalowalo 

Dr roger Neich, Auckland Museum 

reverend Graham Paulson 

Fulimalo Pandora Pereira, Auckland Museum 

Queensland Museum Aboriginal and Torres strait islander Consultative 

Committee 

latai and seini Taumoepeau 

Teresia Teaiwa, Victoria university of Wellington 

Professor Nicholas Thomas, Cambridge university 

John Wilson 

ryan Woodward 

Dr roderick ewins is especially acknowledged for his advice on contextual 

information for the exhibition. 

QueeNslAND ArT GAllerY 

Board of Trustees 

Professor John hay, ac (Chair) 

Dr Amanda bell 

Tim Fairfax, am 

Mark Gray 

John lobban 

David Millhouse 

Avril Quaill 

David Williams 

Executive Management Team 

Tony ellwood, Director 

Andrew Clark, Deputy Director, Programming and Corporate services 

lynne seear, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Collection Development 

Celestine Doyle, Manager, Marketing and business Development 

Exhibition Project Team 

Tarragh Cunningham, exhibition Manager 

and staff 

Andrew Dudley, head of registration 

Desley bischoff, registrar, exhibitions and loans 

and staff 

Don heron, Design Manager 

Jessica White, Assistant exhibition Designer 

and staff 

Amanda Pagliarino, A/head of Conservation 

and staff 

suhanya raffel, Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art 

and staff 

Kate ravenswood, head of Access, education and regional services 

Donna McColm, senior Program Officer, education, Children’s Art Centre 

and Membership 

and staff 

MuseuM OF NeW ZeAlAND Te PAPA TONGAreWA 

78 79 

Board 

John Judge, bcom fca (Chairman) 

Professor Ngatata love 

sue Piper 

hon sandra lee 

Wira Gardiner, dcnzcm 

Miria Pomare 

Dr Michael bassett, qso 

Christopher Parkin 

Senior Management Team 

Michelle hippolite, Acting Chief executive/ Kaihautu (Maori leader) 

Dr Claudia Orange, Collections and research Group Director 

Mark Donovan, experience Group Director 

Andy Millard, business Group Director 

brighid Kelly, Corporate services Group Director 

Graeme Quinn, Chief Financial Officer 

QueeNslAND MuseuM 

Board of Trustees 

David liddy (Chairman) 

Tim Crommelin 

Dr ian Galloway 

Anne Jones 

lynn rainbow-reid 

Mick reilly 

Senior Management Team 

Dr ian Galloway, ceo 

Andrew Moritz, Acting Deputy ceo and Director, The Workshops 

railway Museum 

bernadette McCormack, Acting Director, Queensland Museum south bank 

Diana scott, Museum Foundation 

Dr Celmara Pocock, head, Cultures and histories 

louis sturgess, Public relations 

Exhibition Project Team 

louise Crossley, Collection Manager, Cultures and histories 

Nicholas hadnutt, Assistant Collection Manager 

Peter Volk, Assistant Collection Manager 

leonie Coghill, Manager, Aboriginal and Torres strait islander relations 

Geraldine Mate, Acting senior Curator, Cultures and histories 

Michael Quinnell, former senior Curator, Cultures and histories 

Davina hacklin, senior Conservator 

Jennifer blackley, Conservator 

elizabeth Thompson, Conservator 

Curatorial Team 

Maud Page, Curator, Pacific Art, QAG (co-curator) 

sean Mallon, senior Curator, Pacific Cultures, Te Papa Tongarewa (cocurator) 

imelda Miller, Assistant Curator, Torres strait islander and Pacific 

indigenous studies, QM (co-curator) 

ruth McDougall, Curatorial Assistant, Asian and Pacific Art, QAG 

robyn Ziebell, Project Officer, Asian and Pacific Art, QAG 

Publication 

Judy Gunning, head of information and Publishing services, QAG 

rebecca Dezuanni, A/senior editor, QAG 

stephanie Kennard, Project Assistant, Publications, QAG 

Don heron, Design Manager, QAG 

Angelina Martinez, Graphic Designer, QAG 

Clinton Wong, Multimedia and Web Assistant, QAG 

Photography of works in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

collection supplied by Te Papa; art works in the Queensland Art Gallery 

Collection photographed by Natasha harth, Photographer, QAG; art 

works in the Queensland Museum Collection photographed by Jeff Wright, 

Photographer, QM. All other photography credited as known.

Authors 

Maud Page 

Maud Page took up her appointment as Curator, Contemporary Pacific Art 

at the Queensland Art Gallery in February 2002. she curated the ‘Pasifika 

Divas’ component of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2002, 

‘island beats’ (2004), and has been a member of the curatorium for the 

Asia Pacific Triennials in 2002, 2006 and 2009. Prior to joining the Gallery, 

Maud lectured in museum studies at the university of sydney, and was 

Curator and Coordinator of Pacific Projects at the djamu Gallery, Australian 

Museum, where she curated Michael Parekowhai’s ‘Kitset Cultures’ 

in 1999. Maud was also a member of the curatorium for Quai branly’s 

‘Photoquai biennial 2009’ in Paris. she is curator of a major exhibition of 

contemporary New Zealand art for the Queensland Art Gallery in 2010, 

which will also tour to the National Gallery of Victoria. 

sean Mallon 

sean Mallon is senior Curator Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New 

Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. he is a New Zealander of samoan and 

irish descent and holds an MA in Anthropology from Victoria university, 

Wellington. sean has written a number of publications on samoan art and 

contemporary Polynesian art, including samoan Art & Artists: O Measina 

a Samoa (Craig Potton Publishing, 2002) and is co-editor, along with 

Pandora Fulimalo Pereira, of Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific Dimension of 

New Zealand’s Contemporary Arts (Te Papa Press, 2002) and Speaking 

in Color: Conversations with Artists of Pacific Island Heritage. sean is 

co-contributor, with Nicholas Thomas, Peter brunt and Mark Adams, to 

Tatau: Samoan Tattooing, New Zealand Art, Global Culture (Te Papa Press, 

forthcoming). With Peter brunt, he is co-convener of the Marsden funded 

research project Art in Oceania: A History. 

80 

imelda Miller 

imelda Miller is Assistant Curator, Torres strait islander and Pacific 

indigenous studies, at the Queensland Museum, where she has worked 

extensively with the Australian south sea islander Kastom Collection for 

13 years. An Australian with ni-Vanuatu heritage, imelda’s principal area 

of interest is the history of south sea islander labour in Queensland. she 

assisted with the research and development behind the 2001 exhibition 

‘refined White’, which followed the history of around 62 000 people, 

predominantly from the solomon islands and Vanuatu, transported to 

Queensland between 1863 and 1904 as labour for the Queensland sugar 

industry. 

Vivian Marumi 







81

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