Ceremonial cloth, [Masi or tapa], bark fibre and natural dye, maker unknown, Fiji, pre 1900

The masi is made by beating strips of bark together until the fibres meld and create a piece of cloth. This object consists of five pieces that have been joined together. The white strips show where the fibres have been beaten and jointed together with starch paste to make on large piece of cloth. Traditionally the printer pattern was made using ink and stencils cut from banana leaves. Pandanus leaves were also use4d, but created more imperfections. The brown dye used traditionally came from the sap of a mangrove tree. Black dye came from kerosene lamps.

D6451