http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/objekt/1245590
type: Entity
ksamsok version: 1.3.0
service name: objekt
service organization: SMVK-EM
service organization full: Statens museer för världskultur - Etnografiska museet
build date: 2026-08-14
url: https://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/object/1245590
subject: culturalHistory
data quality: raw
item super type: object
item type: object
item key word: 1846.02.0001
item key word: RM.386
item key word: Tyg av ospunnet material (287)
item key word: Textil, Skinn och Fibrer (280)
item technique: bultat
item technique: målat [[Etno]]
item label: tapa, barktyg, bark cloth [[Etno]], barkcloth, kapa [[Etno]]
is part of: http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/samling/1020880
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Beskrivning
  desc: Långt, brett, rektangulärt, vitt stycke av barktyg/basttyg (kapa/tapa), ofärgat. Tillverkad av basten av Morus papyrifera. Enligt katalogkort "352 x 282 cm".
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Förvärvsomständigheter / till museet
  desc: Gåva
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Anmärkning
  desc: Kapa is the Hawaiian term for what is more generally known across the Pacific as tapa, a barkcloth that was widely used before the introduction of European textiles. Several trees provided the raw material for kapa, including wauke (paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera), mamaki (Pipturus albidus), maʻoloa (Neraudia melastomaefolia), and ʻulu (breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis). The bark was carefully cut with a serrated shell and peeled; the inner bark (bast) was separated from the outer layer, which was discarded. As in other Polynesian societies, kapa making in Hawaiʻi was traditionally the work of women. The process of making kapa varied depending on its intended use. In some cases, the bast was beaten immediately after peeling, while in others it was soaked or retted beforehand. Beating could take place in one or two stages. Hawaiʻi is one of the few regions in the Pacific where the first beating was done on a stone anvil rather than a wooden one. The cloth was dried in the sun, its edges held in place with stones. A Hawaiian tradition links kapa to the goddess Hina. The clouds are said to be her white cloths spread out to dry, weighted with stones. When she moves them, the rolling stones make thunder, and when she folds the cloth, lightning flashes across the sky. Undecorated barkcloth has often been regarded as lacking aesthetic value and, therefore, less interesting than decorated examples. Yet, in many Polynesian islands, plain and especially white tapa held remarkable significance. In Hawaiʻi, such cloths were used to wrap sculptures of the gods placed in sacred spaces. They served two purposes: to materialize the invisible presence of the deity, whose representation was hidden from human eyes, and to contain the divine power that might otherwise be too intense or dangerous. Towers were also erected within heiau (spaces dedicated to worship), wrapped with strips of white tapa to invite gods to descend into the human realm. Between October and February, cere…
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Anmärkning
  desc: Provenance: This tapa was collected by Nils Werngren (1815–1897), a Swedish sailor who completed the first Swedish circumnavigation of the world between 1839 and 1841 aboard the brigantine Mary Ann. He later undertook two further voyages (1842–1844 and 1844–1846) on the Bull. Both ships were owned by the businessman Carl Fredrik Liljevalch (1796–1870), who aimed to trade in Australia. When Werngren returned from his second voyage, he learned that Brunius, purser of another ship, had disappeared with the proceeds from a cargo sale. Werngren was therefore sent on a third voyage to investigate and continue trading. The Bull departed Stockholm on 6 October 1843, sailing first to Sydney and then to Tahiti, where Brunius had settled under French protection. From Tahiti, the ship continued to the Hawaiian Islands—then known to Europeans as the “Sandwich Islands”—arriving in Maui on 3 July and O‘ahu on 4 July 1844. Unfortunately, Werngren did not record how he acquired the tapa, though he noted that “products from this island are as good as money”: tapa may have been among the items exchanged. After five weeks in Hawai‘i, the Bull sailed for Manila on 10 August 1844. Werngren returned to Honolulu from Hong Kong on February 26, 1845, remaining until April 2, 1845, and visited again from Kamchatka and the Columbia River region, anchoring at Honolulu on September 27, 1845, and departing Lahaina (Maui) on November 17, 1845. Thus, Werngren traveled between Maui and O‘ahu several times between July 1844 and November 1845, and the tapa was likely collected at one of these locations during that period. It was donated to the museum by Nils Werngren in 1846. (Héloise Dazard 2025).
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Östberg, Carl Axel. De första världsomseglingarna under svensk flagg: Kapten Nils Werngren berättar. Karlskrona: Abrahamson, 1989
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Röing, Charlotte. Pionjär på de sju haven. Malmö: Mezzo media, 2020
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Buck, Peter H. (Te Rangi Hiroa). Arts and Crafts of Hawaii. Honolulu: The Bishop Museum Press, 1957
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Koojiman, Simon. Polynesian Barkcloth. Aylesbury: Shire Ethnography, 1988
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Schattenburg-Raymond, Lisa. "A New Perspective on Understanding Hawaiian Kapa Making" in Lennard, Frances & Mills, Andy. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth. Leiden: Sidestone Press Academics, 2020, p.73-81
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Johansson Dahre, Ulf. “The South Seas objects and the development of ethnographic collections in the nineteenth century” in Naum, Magdalena & Tarnow Ingvardson, Gitte (ed.). Collecting curiosities: eighteenth-century museum stobæanum and the development of ethnographic collections in the nineteenth century. Lund : Lund University, 2020, p.146-153
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Källor
  desc: Neich, Roger & Pendergrast, Mick. Traditional Tapa Textiles of the Pacific. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Geografiskt namn / annat
  desc: Sandwichöarna
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Geografiskt namn / annat
  desc: Sandwich Islands
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Land / engelska
  desc: Hawaii (USA) @en
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Geografiskt namn / annat
  desc: Polynesien
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Geografiskt namn / annat
  desc: Sandwich-öarna
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Geografiskt namn / annat
  desc: Polynesia
item description: ItemDescription
  type: Händelse / var närvarande vid
  desc: Nils Werngrens tredje resa, med Bull (1843-1846)
item material: ItemMaterial
  type: Materialkategori
  material: växtmaterial
item material: ItemMaterial
  type: Materialkategori
  material: textil
item material: ItemMaterial
  type: Material
  material: bark
item material: ItemMaterial
  type: Material
  material: växtfiber
item material: ItemMaterial
  type: Material, engelska
  material: plant fiber @en
item measurement: ItemMeasurement
  type: Längd
  value: 285
  unit: cm
item measurement: ItemMeasurement
  type: Bredd
  value: 250
  unit: cm
item name: ItemName
  type: Sakord
  name: tapa
item name: ItemName
  type: Sakord
  name: barktyg
item name: ItemName
  type: Sakord, engelska
  name: bark cloth [[Etno]] @en
item name: ItemName
  type: Sakord, engelska
  name: barkcloth @en
item name: ItemName
  type: Lokalt namn
  name: kapa [[Etno]]
item number: ItemNumber
  type: Inventarienummer
  number: 1846.02.0001
item number: ItemNumber
  type: Tidigare identitet
  number: RM.386
context: Werngren, Nils [[Etno]]
  type: Context
  context label: Förvärvad
  context type: transact
  context super type: interact
  from time: 1846
  to time: 1846
  intermediary: http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/name/1020881
context: Context
  context label: Ursprung
  context type: use
  context super type: interact
  continent name: Nordamerika
  country name: Hawaii (USA)
image: Image
  media type: image/jpeg
  byline: Etnografiska museet, Stockholm
  copyright: Statens museer för världskultur
  media license: by
  media license url: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item license: cc0
item license url: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
presentation: 1.3.0 2026-08-14 tapa, barktyg, kapa [[Etno]] Rådata 1245590 objekt Statens museer för världskultur - Etnografiska museet SMVK-EM Föremål http://kulturarvsdata.se/SMVK-EM/objekt/1245590 1846.02.0001, RM.386 Långt, brett, rektangulärt, vitt stycke av barktyg/basttyg (kapa/tapa), ofärgat. Tillverkad av basten av Morus papyrifera. Enligt katalogkort "352 x 282 cm". Gåva, Kapa is the Hawaiian term for what is more generally known across the Pacific as tapa, a barkcloth that was widely used before the introduction of European textiles. Several trees provided the raw material for kapa, including wauke (paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera), mamaki (Pipturus albidus), maʻoloa (Neraudia melastomaefolia), and ʻulu (breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis). The bark was carefully cut with a serrated shell and peeled; the inner bark (bast) was separated from the outer layer, which was discarded. As in other Polynesian societies, kapa making in Hawaiʻi was traditionally the work of women. The process of making kapa varied depending on its intended use. In some cases, the bast was beaten immediately after peeling, while in others it was soaked or retted beforehand. Beating could take place in one or two stages. Hawaiʻi is one of the few regions in the Pacific where the first beating was done on a stone anvil rather than a wooden one. The cloth was dried in the sun, its edges held in place with stones. A Hawaiian tradition links kapa to the goddess Hina. The clouds are said to be her white cloths spread out to dry, weighted with stones. When she moves them, the rolling stones make thunder, and when she folds the cloth, lightning flashes across the sky. Undecorated barkcloth has often been regarded as lacking aesthetic value and, therefore, less interesting than decorated examples. Yet, in many Polynesian islands, plain and especially white tapa held remarkable significance. In Hawaiʻi, such cloths were used to wrap sculptures of the gods placed in sacred spaces. They served two purpose…