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This article examines issues surrounding the reconstruction of the Native Hawaiian community and culture in terms of the traditional art of making kapa, or bark cloth. I will focus on the circumstances that led to the decline of kapa production in the nineteenth century, and its revival during the Hawaiian "renaissance" of the 1970s. Aesthetic and technical factors will be assessed in both pre-contact and post-contact periods. I interviewed contemporary artists and teachers of traditional kapa to establish the extent of current practices, expectations for the future, and concerns surrounding kapa in school curricula.
In the last several decades, there has been an increasing sense of responsibiUty for colonialist enterprises that compromised, and in some cases destroyed, marginal cultures. In the United States, despite serious reflection, protest, and civil unrest, many cultural groups have yet to gain restitution for past injustices that resulted in the loss of their ancestral heritage. Native HawaUans are a proud people struggling to come to terms with those who claimed land that, in their culture, belongs only to the gods (Kame'eleihiwa, 1992).
Rooted in socio-political contexts, this article will address what is considered a minority consequence of poUtical suppression: the loss of traditional arts, crafts, and customs of life. I will look at the issue of cultural loss and reconstruction from the vantage point of one Hawaiian art form, the making of kapa, and the efforts that have been made to bring it back from virtual extinction after more than one hundred years (Brigham, 1911; Buck, 1957; Kamakau, 1870/1987).
Kapa: An Introduction to the Traditional Barkcloth of Hawaii
Kapa is the Hawaiian name for a type of fabric or cloth that is prepared by soaking and pounding the bark of certain trees. It was highly revered for its quaUty and prized for gifts or barter, and later as payment for taxes (Handy, Handy, & Pukui, 1972). The preparation of kapa was mostly a woman's art, and a primary household duty in pre-colonial times. The barkcloth was primarily used for traditional Hawaiian clothing: the women's skirts (pa'u), the men's loincloths (malo), and shawl-Uke garments or cloaks (kihei) used by both sexes. It was also made extensively for use as blankets and bedding (kapa-moe), as well as for wrapping...