Skirt
date: label: Accession Date
content: 17 Feb 2017
name: label: Collector
content: Jean T. Chapman-Mason
label: Donor Name
content: Jean T. Chapman-Mason
notes: label: Notes
content: Yellow fiber hula skirt.
label: Notes
content: Donor's notes: "Pareu kiria'au (hula skirt) is made from cured bast of the beach hibsicus (Hibiscus tiliaceus), which is called 'au or purau in the maori language. Bast has been stripped from the straightest, youngish branches of the 'au tree. 'Au is not cultivated deliberately; instead it grows wild on coasts or in the hills, but as Rarotonga becomes more developed there are few of these trees left on the beaches. The branches are cut and dragged from the hillside bush where the remnant trees are more likely to be found these days. The bark together with bast is stripped off using a small sharp knife; I personally prefer to use a potato peeler to remove the outer bark first, then I strip the bast & roll and tie it. This is how I learned to make it in Mauke as a child. Rarotongans will take the whole sticks, which have been tied together in bundles, to the lagoon or river & anchor them down with rocks where they will stay for 3 weeks. This, to me, is an awkward way to cure the product because they have to be checked more regularly to make sure they don't come loose and float away (in cyclones or high seas, some have! it's not uncommon to find numerous sticks washed up on a beach further along the coast...) . I put my rolls of bast in a plastic sack (old flour sack will do; has to have open weave so the sea can move in & out) and anchor it down with rocks or concrete bricks. I find bricks are useful as they have a hole through which a rope can be threaded then it is tied to the sack & the brick is place upon it. I then leave them unattended for 3 weeks in some part of the lagoon, preferably in the deep part of the lagoon where it's rocky & less likely to be interfered with by humans (people don't like to swim in rocky places)! After 3 weeks the bast is removed from the sea and washed under tap water for ages until it is clean, then it is hung up in the sun to dry. This is the stage Rarotongans strip the bark & bast from the branches & separate the bark from the bast. When dried the bast strips are rolled into bundles to await use in a dance costume. Over time a pareu kiri'au will go brown - not a colour favoured locally - so it is bleached white again using household bleach (unless of course the skirt is dyed - like this one). To make cordage the bark is not cured/soaked ;it is peeled (then the bast is separated & kept while the outer bark is discarded) and made into the article (such as pig tether, traditional sandals, war helmets or rope); it is easier to plait when wet, otherwise the bast is stripped and hung out to dry and then rolled and kept for use. To remove bark & bast easily from the branch for this purpose, it is rolled on hot ashes & embers first - this makes the sap dry up & the branch becomes less slippery, otherwise it would make the task of peeling it much harder."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 26 Aug 2016
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2069807
label: USNM Number
content: E433869-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Skirt
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 96 cm
label: Width
content: 54 cm
label: Height
content: 12 cm