Samoan Siapo (Tapa)
Barkcloth of Samoa, beaten by women from the inner bark of the paper mulberry into large sheets and decorated with geometric patterns in earth tones, either painted by hand or printed by rubbing colour over carved upeti stencil boards. Siapo is made for wrapping, dress and ceremony — it clothes chiefs, lines meeting houses and forms part of exchange gifts at weddings and funerals — and its designs are owned by families and districts, each pattern marking the cloth as coming from a particular place and lineage. Beating the bark, pasting the sheets together with starch and burnishing the finishe