Kapa/Tapa: Pacific Felted Bark Cloth

Video 33 in the Introduction to Ethnobotany series. Presented by Will McClatchey.
Arguably the most important plants brought into Polynesia were introduced for their bark. Clothing and other cultural uses of "cloth" in Hawai'i (and most of Polynesia) were met with fibers derived from the inner bark of both introduced and native plants including 'ulu Artocarpus altilis, Wauke Broussonetia papyrifera, Ma'aloa Neraudia sp., Mamaki Pipturus spp. Around the tropics many species of figs Ficus spp. have also been used as sources of bark for felt clothing. This episode discusses the production of bark felt (cloth) in Polynesia. Also presented are a range of variation in bark felt production in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere.