headdress from the Cook Islands that was included in the exhibition (fig. 17). It may have been used in mourning ceremonies, which in the Cook Islands and the Society Islands required elaborate barkcloth costumes. The accompanying headdresses for these ensembles masked the wearer’s face, achieved here with a small veil of barkcloth. The centrality of barkcloth clothing declined as Pacific peoples increasingly gained access to imported machinemade cloth, but it has proven to be a resilient art form. Its ceremonial importance persists in many parts of the Pacific today, for example, at dance performances and festivals, political investitures, weddings, and funerals. A wedding dress was commissioned by the museum with funds from the New Zealand Society UK, private donors, and the Museum’s Acquisitions Committee (fig. 10). It was made in New Zealand by Samoan designer Paula Chan Cheuk and completed in 2014. Her dresses are extremely popular with Samoan brides as a uniquely modern expression of their cultural heritage. The garment combines white siapo (Samoan barkcloth) with sections of plaited fine matting, two highly valued textiles. It is an example of the innovative ways in which barkcloth has been taken up by urban designers as a flexible medium that has extraordinary cultural depth. In Hawaii, leading hula groups have begun to wear barkcloth dance costumes again, representing a fresh development in the revival of barkcloth that began in the 1970s. A stunning skirt made from Hawaiian kapa (barkcloth) encapsulates the enthusiasm for the art in Hawaii today and the creativity of the artist, Dalani Tanahy (fig. 19). She was one of a group of leading kapa artists involved with making dance costumes for hula groups to perform in beginning in 2011. This challenged makers to prepare cloth strong and flexible enough to withstand the vigorous movements of the dance (fig. 20). The patterns themselves continue to shift—the skirt features new designs rendered with traditional dyes. The sacred and ceremonial aspects of barkcloth carry sustained importance, and the highly recognizable and distinctively Pacific patterns that decorate barkcloth remain intimately linked with specific communities. FIG. 17 (right): Headdress. Southern Cook Islands. Early 1800s. Collected by Rev. John Williams. Barkcloth, wood, hibiscus fiber, coir, coconut palm leaf, chicken (?) feathers. British Museum, inv. Oc,LMS.88. Purchased from the London Missionary Society, 1911. © The Trustees of the British Museum. FIG. 18 (below): Warrior’s hat. Markham River, Morobe, Papua New Guinea. 1910–1918. Bark, bast, cuscus fur, sulphur-crested cockatoo feathers. H: 41.5 cm. British Museum, inv. Oc1919,0718.54. Purchased from Frank H. Streeten, 1919. © The Trustees of the British Museum. FIG. 19 (below left): Dance skirt, pa’u, by Dalani Tanahy. O’ahu, Hawaiian Islands. 2014. Paper mulberry bark (Broussonetia papyrifera), walnut, turmeric, ocher, charcoal, candlenut. British Museum, inv. 2014,2031.1. Commissioned from the artist in 2014 with funding from the British Museum’s Acquisition Committee. © The Trustees of the British Museum, Courtesy of the artist. FIG. 20 (below): Hula dancers from the Halau Na Kipu’upu’u group, Ka’auea, Hawai’i, Hawaiian Islands, 2011. Photo © Dino Morrow.
•TribalPaginaIntera.indd
To see the actual publication please follow the link above