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Although I am an outsider to the Fijian
culture, a Kai Valagi (euphemistically: foreign
white person), having lived on the main island of Viti
Levu for six years from August 1991 to July 1997, the descriptions
here are based upon my own observations, research and personal
experiences. The scene described above was from a visit
in 1993 to the island of Tongatapu in Tonga, a near neighbor
to the South Pacific islands of Fiji where this ancient
tradition is still practiced. Its importance to their cultures
is as great as the ceremonial drinking of yaqona (or kava: a
chalky slightly narcotic drink made from the pounded root
of the plant piper methysticum) and the presentation
of the tabua (whales tooth). It is an integral symbol of
wealth and respect used in trade or ceremony even today
in the everyday life of Fiji and Tonga.
Though worn for outward adornment, the patterns
and textures of the tapa cloth itself take on a presence
evoking a consciousness of the depth of history in the
ceremony being performed. It is as if, through the patterns,
one can ³read² the stories of the ancients who followed
the same rituals in times not too long past. When the
voices rise from the participants, the voices meld with
the individual
elements of the ritual carrying a strength and power
of ancient times.
Examples of ceremonial inclusion of tapa
includes funerals, weddings, and chiefly ceremonies. When
someone dies, tapa cloth would be presented with honours
along with other symbols of wealth and generosity such
as handwoven mats, large bundles of kava root, and livestock.
Similar exchanges are used for weddings where the bride
and groom are each wrapped in long lengths of tapa cloth,
often quite heavy and leaving the wearer challenged to
walk. But garlanded with salusalu (flower wreaths),
the honored couple play homage to the old ways. A similar
garment would be worn during the traditional ceremonies
for the creation of a new chief. The tapa cloth would be
of high importance having been made, and patterns painted,
with great care.
The methods of preparing the masi cloth
are basically the same for both the Fijian and Tongan cultures.
But the patterns painted on them, the tapa designs, vary
greatly. Where the Tongans pride themselves on creating
huge masi in lengths measured in the hundreds of feet,
their rubbed and painted patterns are generally larger,
less visually complex and generally softer in appearance
than the highly prized Fijian tapa cloths with their finer
and more intricate painted patterns. The larger Tongan
style is still very much a part of the tradition in one
part of Fiji, called the Lau group, which has a large Tongan
influence in many of their traditional practices. There
exists a few rare examples of the combining of styles which
display the softer reddish brown rubbed and painted patterns
of Tonga that are bordered and interlaced with the smaller
dancing stenciled black and brown patterns of Fiji.
There is a contrapuntal rhythm generated
from these special pieces like that of the strong harmonic
voices singing long smooth tones against the sharp syncopated
beats of the Fijian lali (hollow log drum pounded
with wooden mallets). It is no wonder that pieces such
as these remain in the domain of the chiefly Lau group,
an area of Fiji which allows only restricted access by
the western world.
Though each style of tapa cloth has its
merits, its own beauty and importance to their individual
cultures of Fiji and Tonga, it is the influence of modern
economics and the tourism industry, especially in Fiji,
that has begun to change the integral aesthetics of this
traditional art form.
