Kuo Hina E Hiapo The Mulberry is White and Ready for Harvest

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 generations belief that this tradition will never die