Kapa - hawaiian bark cloth

This was in the Servants cabin where there were 3 different cubicles belong to 3 different ethnic groups. Scots, Metis and Hawaiian or Kanaka. This was roughly showing the different ethnic groups that made up the HBC employees roster. The majority of them had Kwantlen wives.

The Scots man was from the Orkneys and was named Robertson......Maybe a long lost relative of mine as my grandpa was a Robertson from the Orkneys, but most of his siblings came to Canada just before WW1 or just after. He came out after and he was the youngest.

We have seen these bark cloth blankets in Hawaii. They are made from the Paper mulberry tree which we can grow in Vancouver, and there is one at Van Dusen - Broussonetia papyrifera or Wauke. The beautiful pattern is made by dipping a bamboo "stamp" into a dye, and pressing it onto the bark cloth. The cloth itself is the inner bark soaked and pounded out prior to make it supple and stretched. Special tools and techniques are used by the Hawaians.

There is a hawaiian legend associated with the Wauke (paper mulberry) and the Goddess Hina. "in ancient times the sun travelled so fast across the horizon that the goddess Hina did not have time for her Kapa to dry. Realizing this, her demigod son Maui went to the place where the sun rises, on the crest of Mount Haleakala, He waited and watched as the first rays of the sun came up an he lassoed them thereby slowing down the sun for his mom. -source Kahanu garden booklet, National Tropical Botanical Garden Hana Maui -

See here for article about modern Kapa makers. ( https://mauimagazine.net/beauty-in-the-bark/Read more