Among the many taonga held by Ngā Pātaka Kōrero - Auckland Libraries is a sampler book of Pacific tapa cloth.
The Tapa Book is a catalogue of different specimens of cloth collected in the mid 1700s during the three Pacific voyages of Captain James Cook.
In the late 1780s Alexander Shaw compiled a series of catalogues with sample cloth from Tonga, Tahiti and Hawai’i. Each book is a unique mixture of clothes and each is highly prized as a repository of information about Pacific fibres prior to European influence of textiles and tools.
Auckland Libraries acquired a copy through donation by James Tannock Mackelvie in 1885 and have digitised the book in a page turning format for full and easy access via the Auckland Libraries catalogue. https://bit.ly/2SGw4JD
In October 2017 Auckland Libraries hosted an event with guest speakers titled Tapa Talk.
In this series you will hear from Auckland-based Tongan artist and educator Dagmar Dyck; University of Auckland Senior Research Fellow Billie Lythberg;
Frances Lennard, Professor in Textile Conservation, and Research Associate Andy Mills, both from the Centre for Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow, Scotland; and Senior Lecturer Phyllis Herda from The University of Auckland.
Dagmar, Billie and Phyllis are investigators on Ancient Futures: Late 18th and Early 19th Century Tongan Arts and their Legacies, funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund.
Frances and Andrew are investigators on Tapa: Situating Pacific Barkcloth Production in Time & Place, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The session was opened by Jane Wild, Heritage Manager Auckland Libraries, and guests introduced by Daren Kamali, Pacific Heritage Curator, Auckland Libraries.