Situating Pacific barkcloth production in time and place

Until the twentieth century barkcloth was a vital material in the social, cultural and ritual lives of Pacific islanders. Barkcloth, or tapa, was widely used in tropical areas instead of weaving cloth on a loom and was used to create clothing, furnishings, carpeted pathways for royal weddings and funerals, and masks and garments for ritual and religious ceremonies. Sheets of the inner bark of trees and flowering plants were stripped and soaked to soften them, then beaten with wooden mallets to stretch the cloth and make it softer and stronger, before decorating it with painted designs. The production and use of barkcloth were disrupted by increasing western impact on the Pacific islands in the nineteenth century and in some areas missionaries completely suppressed its use. There is a continuous tradition of making barkcloth in some areas of the Pacific, but the skill has been lost in other islands, such as Hawai'i. Today the re-introduction or re-interpretation of barkcloth is an important aspect of cultural identity in these islands.

Barkcloth was of great interest to travellers from the west, and Pacific barkcloth objects in western museums are a significant legacy from eighteenth and nineteenth century explorers, scientists and colonists. There are many good collections in museums in the UK and around the world but there are still major gaps in our understanding of it as a material. This project will examine the development of barkcloth production in the Pacific in the nineteenth century. We want to investigate whether materials, techniques and designs originated from particular islands, how they were transmitted around the region and the effect of globalisation on this tradition. This is important both for our understanding of objects in museum collections and for contemporary barkcloth makers in the Pacific. The project will focus on three internationally important collections at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow and The Economic Botany Collection at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, in the UK, and The National Museum of Natural History, part of the USA's Smithsonian Institution. We will research the provenance and history of objects in the collections and analyse their materials and manufacture. We will also carry out fieldwork in the Pacific islands, talking to barkcloth makers, growers and designers and experimenting with making barkcloth using different plants and beating techniques.

We know that a variety of plants, including breadfruit, banyan and mamaki, were used to make barkcloth but it is often assumed that objects in western collections are made from the paper mulberry tree though in fact paper mulberry is not indigenous to the Pacific. However it is currently extremely difficult to identify barkcloth species because the fibres were badly damaged during production. The research will explore different identification techniques including the staining of sections, scanning-electron microscopy, protein analysis and DNA analysis. We aim to use some of these methods to identify the plant species in museum objects so that we have a better understanding of the plants used in different islands and how globalisation affected their use. An investigation of preservation and conservation techniques is an integral part of the project. Many barkcloth objects in museum collections are in poor condition; many pieces are very large and have been folded for storage but the cloth becomes brittle and inflexible with age and the folds become fixed. A programme of conservation treatment and improved storage will make the Hunterian and Kew artefacts accessible for current and future research. This will also improve our understanding of the physical properties of barkcloth; we will be looking for links between the objects' physical characteristics and degradation patterns and the plant species. This could result in different conservation treatments for objects depending on their fibre type or condition.

We envisage three main groups of beneficiaries in the professional and public arenas outside the academic community:
1. Conservation staff, both in museums and in commercial practice.
It is standard conservation practice to approach an object in light of knowledge about its composition and history. At present for barkcloth there is a lack of systematic knowledge about either; consequently each piece must be approached as a new project. The project's insights into barkcloth history, material identification and conservation practice represent both a major resource for conservators, and a baseline for further research by practicing conservators. The development of identification techniques and improved reference materials will inform the assessment of pieces in collections beyond those of the three participating museums. A greater understanding of physical characteristics, degradation pathways and condition indicators will aid identification, even for museums which do not have access to expensive analytical equipment. This has direct benefits for conservators and contributes to the outcomes for museum and gallery visitors, below.

2. Museum & gallery visitors.
Because of its portability and ubiquity in eighteenth and nineteenth century Pacific societies many museums have significant numbers of Pacific barkcloths, often on display to the public, and they are currently a popular subject for special exhibitions. The project will share its findings both with specialist Pacific curators (who fall within our academic beneficiaries) but also with generalist curators with wide responsibilities - a group represented by the project participants at the Hunterian and Kew. It has often been noted that European museums have rich Pacific collections, but notably little on display. In reaching curators, we expect to see an increase in the quantity and quality of barkcloth interpretation (and an increase in the number of pieces on display), leading to a greater understanding of and interest in barkcloth - a key element of Pacific cultures - among museum visitors.

3. Contemporary makers and consumers of barkcloth in the Pacific.
While the main project activities are scheduled for the northern hemisphere, we are keenly mindful of the source communities for museum specimens, and their strong interest in preserving or - more often - reviving barkcloth production in the Pacific. Although we cannot resolve all the difficulties facing makers, we can tackle three. First, the project database and the improved catalogues of the participating museums will be a simple-to-use and obvious starting point for makers and other artists seeking inspiration and understanding of how barkcloth traditions have evolved. At present it is hard to locate barkcloth in museum catalogues, as terminology varies, key information is missing, and images are missing or poor. We envisage easier electronic access also leading to more visits by makers to museum collections, a pattern already visible from other web resources at Kew and the Hunterian. Second, the project outcomes will make technical information widely available on the raw materials, tools and processes involved in barkcloth making, drawing on evidence from analysis of museum specimens, literature, and fieldwork. Unlocking this kind of information, through written resources or the dissemination event, will enable makers to make better informed choices about materials. Thirdly, we expect the project web site and other forms of dissemination to further raise the profile of barkcloth, leading to greater value being placed by society on contemporary makers and their work. We recognise that resources such as the website will likely inspire both makers - or makers-to-be - who seek to preserve and revive traditional barkcloths, and those who are seeking innovation or artistic experimentation. Both are desirable outcomes, in that the project will be supporting barkcloth manufacture as a living practice.