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The Material Culture of the Cook Islands (Aitutaki)

Bark Cloth

Bark Cloth.

In the Cook Group, Aitutaki was noted for its bark cloth. Though little may be made now, there are scores of women who are acquainted with the details of manufacture. The wooden anvils and ironwood beaters are quite common amongst the households. Bark cloth is still used as a bed spread after childbirth. The preliminary stages of technique were demonstrated to the author with actual material.

Plants Used. The plant most commonly used is the paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera. There are said to be three varieties, the purautea, anga and aute. Anga is the word most frequently used but anga and aute seem to be interchangeable. Cultivated plants of the anga and purautea were pointed out, and attention drawn to the larger leaf of the latter.

In the genealogy of plants, the ancestry of Purautea was given as follows:—

Atea (m)—Papa (f).
Te Hatu (m)—Anganui (f).
Te Tara  Te Maori  Purautea  Papako.

About the two eldest children there is no existing record beyond their descent. Te Tara and Te Maori, as plants, are unknown to the present generation. Papako, the youngest of the family, yields his bark for the making of cords and ropes and long nets with a big mesh, for catching turtle, shark, stingray and other big fish. It also is used to make a cloth used as a waist cloth, and thus named maro papako.

In addition to the paper mulberry, the bark of the breadfruit, kuru, and the banyan, aoa, are used.

Wooden Anvil, tutunga. The act of beating out the bark is termed tutu and the wooden anvil upon which the page 77beating is done is called the tutunga. Though the industry has ceased to be very active, most of the families retain their tutunga, and sentiment is still strong enough to prevent them being cut up merely as timber for other purposes. The wood used is tamanu or miro. A typical one measured at Vaipae was 12 feet 10 inches in length. It was perfectly rectangular except for a groove on its under surface, as shown in Fig. 70.

Figure 70.Cross section of wooden anvil, tutunga.

Figure 70.
Cross section of wooden anvil, tutunga.

In the posture song sung by women as they sit cross-legged before their work, the following line occurs:—

"Hapai mai i te tutunga kia tutu."
"Bring hither the tutunga that we may beat the bark."

Beaters, ike. The beaters for beating out the bark on the tutunga are made of ironwood and have four grooved surfaces. Sometimes miro wood is used. The handle is shaped, whereas in Mangaia, the grooved surfaces run from end to end without any cutting away for a handle. The grooves run longitudinally and were cut with a shark's tooth fixed to a handle. The beater is called an ike and the
Figure 71. Bark cloth beater, ike.

Figure 71.
Bark cloth beater, ike.

page 78grooves, ugao. The grooves may be narrow and closely set, ngao rikiriki, or they may be deep and wide, ngao rarahi.

Each beater may have sets of differently-spaced grooves on each of its four surfaces. The different sets have different names, and each kind is used for a particular stage in beating the bark. There are four sets named and the differences are given in the number of ridges per centimetre, as they were easier to measure.

1. Ngao hoahoa 1 ridge to 1 cm.
2. Ngao papa 3 ridge to 1 cm.
3. Ngao iheihe 4 to 5 ridge to 1 cm.
4. Ngao tahakaieie 6½ ridge to 1 cm.

The typical ike in Fig. 71 is 16¾ inches long. The grooved surfaces for beating are 10½ inches long, leaving the handle part 6¼ inches. The width of the grooved surfaces are 2.1 inches and 2.2 inches. The narrowest part of the handle is 1.7 inches in diameter. The outer end of the handle is flared and cut off at a slant. The four grooved surfaces are ngao hoahoa, ngao papa and two ngao iheihe.

The coarser surfaces of the ike were for the preliminary stages of beating out the bark and the finer surfaces for finishing off. Thus though some ike had the four kinds of grooving, the womenfolk generally had a set of beaters of different kinds.

Dyeing Frames, rakau takiri pahoa. Patterns were printed on the prepared cloth in some cases by means of frames. None of these were seen. A square or rectangular frame was made of strips of the aerial roots of the pandanus or of other wood. To this, the dried mid-ribs of cocoanut leaflets were tied neatly with fine sinnet. They were arranged in two sets of parallel lines, which crossed vertically and horizontally, or obliquely. The frame was called a rakau takiri pahoa. The dye was brushed or dabbed on to the midrib lines and the frame then pressed down
Figure 72. Patterns on bark cloth.

Figure 72.
Patterns on bark cloth.

A—Ngaito. B—Okaoka.

page 79on the cloth. Though the women knew a good deal about cloth-beating, the finer points about dye patterns had evidently not been passed on to the present generation of old women.

The only patterns remembered were those of the parallel lines made with the above frames. When the lines ran vertically and horizontally, the pattern was named ngaito, and when obliquely, okaoka. See Fig. 72.