A review of Paper History and Paper making in the Pacific Islands

The invention of Paper is known to have literally shaped the world and many new aspiring empires. New forms of Paper and printing introduced into East Africa and the Arab world from Asia, before the 7th century, allowed an Arab religious expansion, fueling an Arabic Academic Renaissance.

Later in the 14th century, after a full 13th century of Mongol Invasion into Europe and the middle-east, paper was again the savior of a new "European Renaissance", where libraries of knowledge were gathered from the Arab, Catholic, and eventually with permission, from the Mongol-Chinese world, then translated into German, French, and Italian. The new translated libraries built new western social, academic, and political orders.

Historian "This is why when researching there gets to a point where the best and oldest references change languages. Books written in English only go so far back, because British were basically one of the last European areas with libraries. The source of British education is from Southern Europe, from the Catholic regions. Germany also has a great educational standing with Catholics having an old connected history. Then there is only so far back in time..that the Catholic languages and writing systems can go....until a researcher starts hitting the West Asian languages [Cuneiform], Egyptian [Hieroglyphics], and Aramaic. It keeps going farther back to Southeast Asia and East Asia. The oldest languages in Asia are South Asian, Southeast Asian, and East Asia's Austro-Asiatic and Austronesian Languages. The Native American languages run a different migration course and it has not really been determined which is the oldest Native American colonies."

The Paper History and origins
Southeast Asia-Pacific and South China are generally where the "origins of paper" first came fourth, developed to adorn and then to support a writing system, to accompany record keeping, and arithmetic. Another thing that narrows down the origins of Paper is the Paper tree material, which grows only in limited latitudes around tropical environments. 

Historian "It's not just paper-trees, almost everything we eat today comes from the Southern regions of the world. Not much grows in the winter ice-snow.. that's just how it goes. In fact before imports from the South came to the north, the main foods were mushroom, cabbage, and a northern breed of fowl and rabbit to make soup. No fruit..not spices...no sugar...not really any vegetables, and no chocolate."

Ancient Egypt imported "reed crop" from central Africa, a region thickened in jungle. Egyptians themselves were originally an Asian-Indus people coming through Asia-Southeast and it is theorized they brought the technology of paper-cloth with them. The Egyptian version originally was a rough lumped version of papyrus, crossed in strips to form a pallet. Eventually the older Egyptian papyrus form was replaced by another introduction of paper, coming in with Southeast Asian Spice-traders.

In the outer Pacific island cultures, traditionally the "paper cloth", is used in more daily ways than in anywhere else in the ancient world [3000 years ago], worn and wrapped on the body, given in gift, and designed on for the home. Outer-south Pacific cultures however do not apply the mainland practice of combining a writing system onto paper cloth, and instead use stone statues to write a pictographic and ideographic eastern Pacific language. Polynesians also crested the writing on wooden canes to empower the leaders, and cut wooden tablets to hold records of ceremonial practices.

 

[Rapa Nui- Easter Island - Polynesian Writing]

[Eastern Polynesia - Wood Tablet]

Paper and Bark Cloth in the outer Pacific Islands
Paper History in the outer Pacific has created several academic debates since "paper making" very generally is claimed by a popular Chinese History. However paper making is widespread in Southeast Asia, and outer-Oceania where dynasties of China have never touched down, made still for the "sailing mast" in out-rigger fishing vessel.

Historian "If there is no Chinese record of sailing to the Pacific islands, then how do they all have paper. They call it Tapa-Cloth, a paper-cloth. Everyone knows Polynesians are Southeast Asians. The countries of China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia were all founded from Southern Asian-Pacific migrations going north. There is no doubt that paper came from Southeast Asians."

Witnessed in "The Vaka Taumako Project", the out-rigger sails were made from Hau Bark. The Hau Bark Cloth [Paper Cloth] after a rigorous process, is cut and hand sewn into sections to fit a sail-frame. The hand sewn layers make a durable thick sailing mast, which is mounted on the center pole or sail-rigger, able to take on the open seas. The Hau plant, along with sugar cane, arrowroot, uhi yams, and cocoa, are Moa-Polynesian introduced plants, transplanted across the Pacific islands.

The Hau plant has various academic and traditional names, and was once protected against any uprooting in traditional Hawaiian culture, also found to be a Tapu or sanctioned plant in Tahiti. In Samoa, the Paper Cloth is called Siapo, and Ngatu in Tonga, and well documented. The Paper Cloth sheets made in Samoa and Tongan come in several shades and sizes, one shade being close to the modern paper color today.

The uses of Paper Cloth in the Moana
Tapa cloth is still today an important item between family houses. Weddings and funeral ceremony call upon the most exchange of these gifts. The sizes of paper cloth sheets made and exchanged, range from a smaller sheet [1 yard], up to a family size sheet, able to be sat upon by 15-25 people.

Colors of the Tapa-paper in Polynesia
The colors normally produced in Samoa from natural dyes are a marbled tan, dark coconut brown, and a very light tan sheet almost the shade of thinned out sheet paper today. Samoan Ararao or Arrowroot paste [glue] is also involved in the production process.

The Samoan Paper Cloth process
In the Samoan language, the Paper Cloth is known as U'a, which is after a long first process of harvesting a crop of Samoan Paper trees. Samoans can use other paper bark types to make paper, but the Samoan paper tree [paper mulberry tree] is the preferred stalk to harvest for quality Paper Cloth. The trees are harvested ten to fourteen months old or approximately when they become one to two inches in diameter. The bark when stripped from the tree is then separated into long and small strips, and gathered to a central location in the village to be worked on. Once the bark strips are at a processing site, the bast or inner meat is separated and then soaked in water until fully moistened down.

The next step in the process is the cleaning and removal the remaining bits of bark and green which involves scraping the inner bast. The cleaning of the inner bast at the same time softens and spreads the bark fibers out into a flatter foldable form. Traditional Samoan methods have been documented to use three different edged clam shell tools which have different degrees of coarseness. The shell tools are named Pipi, Pae, and 'Asi. As the cleaning of inner bast is finished, another physical part of Flat-beating begins with the help of two [2] more Samoan Paper Cloth tools, one called the I'e, which is a wooden anvil and another called the Tutua.

The Samoan I'e tool is square in shape with two smooth sides and has two grooved sides, used during the Flat-beating. The Tutua bar tool is a larger cut slab to flatten out bark fibers about three feet long. There are on average two [2] lengths of Tutua, one able to be used by a single person for smaller paper sheets, and then a larger Tutua, six feet long, is used by two or three people during the flat-beating process. The top the Tutua tool-bar is eight inches wide and flat, with slightly rounded edges. Once the Flat-beating process is complete, the U'a is then moved out into a designated drying area.

The Siapo Canvas of Samoa
Once the U'a is finished in it's entirety, the main use of U'a in Samoa is the creation of Siapo. In many other areas of the world, once the hard process of Paper Cloth is completed, it's then cut into hand held sheets or hand held rolls to be scribed upon. In Samoa, and in the rest of outer oceania, the Paper Cloth is traditionally painted upon like a canvas, then used for several purposes for the home and in ceremony. 

Samoan Imprint and Free-hand on Siapo
In Samoa, at least 2 techniques are used to apply design patterns. One is the pressure method [Siapo 'Elei], using a design board [Upeti] to imprint or print designs from one unfinished Tapa work to the next. The second method is called Siapo Mamanu, which is a free-hand designing, applying visuals as an artist today would upon a canvas. The Samoan patterns line the paper cloth all around the outer-sides, with the designs often being a symmetrical pattern

Notes
['] In Samoa, Siapo is an art and sold at times in smaller sheets to be either framed or mounted inside homes and businesses

References:
[-] Museum of Anthropology [Siapo Tapa Cloth] Retrieved 19th, August 2011
[-] Marlamallet.com [Tapa Cloth. South Pacific] Retrieved 19th, August 2011
[-] Tongantattoo.tripod.com [Ngatu Designs] Retrieved 19th, August 2011
[-] Blackpearldesigns.net [Samoan Siapo] Retrived 20th, August
[-] Wilford, N. John "Pacific Islanders’ Ancestry Emerges in Genetic Study", The New York Times, Retrieved 19th August, 2011
[-] Ancient China Culture.com [Great Inventions of Ancient China] Retrieved 19th, August 2011
[-] "Fast trains, slow boats, and the ancestry of Polynesian islanders", Oppenheimer, Stephen and Richards, Martin [PDF] Retrieved 19th, August 2011
[-] Krauss, Bob "Artifacts link China, Polynesia", Honoluladvertiser.com, Retrieved 19th August 2011
[-] Krauss, Bob "First Footsteps of Polynesians' ancestors tracked", Honoluluadvertiser.com, Retrieved 19th, August 2011
[-] pacifictraditions.org "THE VAKA TAUMAKO PROJECT", Retrieved 19th July, 2012
[-] "Hau" www.canoeplants.com, Retrieved 19th July, 2012
[-] "Hawaiian Culture Plants" www.eastmauiwatershed.org, Retrieved 19th June, 2012

[Edited last on August 20th, 2014]

Posted in: A.P.I. A. Studies,Mana Science