Photographer: Leonie Gärtner | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalPhotographer: Heinz-Günther Malenz | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
In Fiji, the production of bark cloth has never stopped. Nowadays, however, the women only produce it in a few places, such as Lau Island in eastern Fiji, Cakaudrove Province on Vanua Levu, and Vatulele Island in southern Fiji. They range from small pieces for sale to large pieces 50 metres long and 5 metres wide. The inner bark of the paper mulberry tree is stripped, soaked and beaten wide with wooden beaters. Several such pieces of fabric are then laid on top of each other at the edges and joined together by further beating to form a larger fabric, expanded and painted. This piece probably comes from north-east Fiji (Cakaudrove).
