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Kuo Hina E Hiapo

Kuo Hina E Hiapo MAIN

Kuo Hina E Hiapo

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Secondary Title: : The Mulberry is White and Ready for Harvest
Filmmaker Name: Melinda Ostraff, Joseph Ostraff
Film Length: 27 min
Film Year: 2001
Duration: 21-45 min
Decade: 2000s
Language: English, Tongan
Subtitle Language: with English subtitles
Color: color
Region: Oceania
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ABOUT

Tapa cloth, or ngatu as it is called in Tonga, is cloth made from the bark of the mulberry tree. The inner bark is beaten into fine sheets and painted using traditional designs. After centuries of use, ngatu has literally become the fabric of Tongan society. In Tonga and throughout much of Polynesia, bark cloth has deep symbolic and ceremonial use. At birth, babies are swaddled in it. At marriage, newlyweds line their wedding bed, and at death, the departed are buried wrapped in it.

This documentary investigates the highly collaborative process of making ngatu and the organizations of women who carry on with the tradition. While the process continues to be passed on from generation to generation, there are signs of change as a cash economy begins to infiltrate Tongan life. Young people show less interest in such labor intensive endeavor in the face of the older generation's belief that this tradition will never die.

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