Samoa, tapa, and the Pacific Island festival, NZ!

This week was an interesting one for me. I put together a trip to Samoa and New Zealand at the end of this month. I will be taking some very old tapa cloth (my grandfather brought it from Samoa on his journey to the South Pacific for national geographic back in the 30's...long story!) and I met a woman who is related to the Prime Minister down there that will help get the tapas into the museum in Apia. I called my mom and she was totally up for it. So the 2 of us will leave at the end of the month and stay in Samoa for about 8 days. I have already met a group of really cool local Samoans who are anxious to join us for the ceremony. (I'm sure there will be lots of Kava flowing!) Then we will travel on to NZ (a place that's been high on my list for a long time). We will go to Aukland to participate in the Pacific Island Festival (Pasifika)
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/whatson/events/pasifika/history.asp
I will be taking down some beautiful coconut/silver jewelry to sell at the booth representing Samoa. Then on to see a friend of hers in Wellington who worked with her at the Eames office and recently won an oscar for his work on "Lord of the Rings" afterwhich he decided to move there. Sounds exciting huh? I can't wait. My mom is an amazing person (and a great photogragher!) so it's really cool to be able to do this with her. She is getting up there in age but hasn't slowed down too much. In the last 2 years she has been on photo shoots to Africa, Siberia, China, and the North pole (searching for polar bears on a Russian ice cutter!!) We also went to Peru a few years ago to close the book on my grandfather's (her father's) mysterious death. He founded the insitute of Manual Arts in Lima and died unexpectedly at an early age at which time all his fortunes and artifacts "disappeared" into a family he married in to (while still married to my grandmother back in the states. (another very long story!) He wrote a book on his travels to the South Pacific and South East Asia called "Polynesian Venture" by Truman Bailey circa 1939...
I'll try to send an update while I'm down there.
"Talofa!!"

Wow...some interesting history in your family, and your Mother is certainly a character. Luckily I have traveled throughout New Zealand and it is an awesome place, so I can imagine the Pasifika Festival will be quite the event. I look forward to seeing the pictures your Mom takes. Have a great trip!!!

Thanks Vamptiki! Between the 2 of us there will surely be lots of good travel pics. Hey I like the story so far. You have a knack with the pen!
A hui ho!!

Sounds great :) Love to see the pics from your trip. There's a few TCers from NZ, you might be able to hook up with them

Update:
After a few glasses of wine ,my uncle started bringing up some cool stories of his adventurous dad (my Grandfather) and one of them was that he was instrumental in some of the first tapa style fabrics which were made into shirts and loose fitting pants. I will look up more on this to verify, but I know he was on commission by Gumps to bring back unusual fabrics (along with artifacts, arts, and crafts etc.). My uncle made mention of them using the tapa cloth to "copy" and make crude shirts out of. Does anyone know the history of the first aloha shirts? I know there is a comprehensive book on the aloha shirt, so I will look into it. Can't wait to get my toes in some warm Samoan sand, (less than a week away!) A hui ho

Shaka, keep us informed, this is important history for my next book project after "Tiki Modern", called "The Look of Tiki", which will go beyond shirts and into Pacific patterns in general. I already am planning one whole chapter on the evolution of Tapa from bark cloth to shirt, because the abstraction of Tapa fits into the whole primitive/modern perspective I will have for the book.

Thanks Big Bro!
I will definately keep you posted and take lots of pics in Samoa. The story of our trip will also be written up in the LA times when we get back, so I'll post that when it happens.

Here's a couple pics of the the tapas being viewed by Elaine Silva in pink dress, (daughter to the Samoan Prime Minister) and Emily and Mike Odegaard (he introduced me to these wonderful people!)Check out the tapa board used as a "stamp" for dying the tapas.

Elaine marveling at how well they have aged

There are 25 pieces total!

Look-at-that! Wow, great stuff!
Damn, I would love to photograph that for my book before it goes! Would that still be possible?

No problem Bigbro! I am taking digital pics of all before they get packed up tommorrow for the journey south. I will be holding on to a couple of them for properity sake, (and of course the tapa board).

Thanks, Wes. Please shoot them high res, I'd like to use some in full page size.

Here's an early Tapa garment. I am not clear if the text meant to say "bathing suit OF Tapa", if so, I sure would have liked to have seen her take a swim in it!

That is interesting! I know my Grandfather also spent some time down in Tahiti. Wondering if the suit she is wearing is actually from there or a tahitian design made here? Great photo!

On 2007-02-11 18:02, hewey wrote:
There's a few TCers from NZ, you might be able to hook up with them

For sure, i live in Auckland private msg me. ill send you a email, come and have a drink at my bar. I can show you around local style :D

You save some time for Rotarua. Its a tiki haven

On 2007-02-25 13:25, Lost Paradise wrote:

For sure, i live in Auckland private msg me. ill send you a email, come and have a drink at my bar. I can show you around local style :D

You save some time for Rotarua. Its a tiki haven

Bar? Home or commercial? Good to see a new NZ member on TC - welcome!

Welcome to the board Lost Paradise. I know we would all love to see pictures of your bar, if you have any. I was in Auckland a couple of years ago...beautiful city. Also toured through Rotarua, but wasn't savy to the tiki collecting then, so really missed some great opportunities. They have a great Maori show there though and I did get some music CDs. :)

On 2007-02-25 15:32, Paipo wrote:

On 2007-02-25 13:25, Lost Paradise wrote:

For sure, i live in Auckland private msg me. ill send you a email, come and have a drink at my bar. I can show you around local style :D

You save some time for Rotarua. Its a tiki haven

Bar? Home or commercial? Good to see a new NZ member on TC - welcome!

commerical, Sorry i was using my other profile

Thanks Lost Paradise! I will definitely stop in to your bar (will look for PM) Do you plan on checking out Pasifika? Oh and Rotarua is certainly on my list!
Cheers Mate!

On 2007-02-25 15:32, Paipo wrote:

On 2007-02-25 13:25, Lost Paradise wrote:

For sure, i live in Auckland private msg me. ill send you a email, come and have a drink at my bar. I can show you around local style :D

You save some time for Rotarua. Its a tiki haven

Bar? Home or commercial? Good to see a new NZ member on TC - welcome!

Commerical its non-tiki. Retro though

Random note of interest:
I got to speak with the Prime Minister of Samoa yesterday!! Very nice guy and easy to talk to. He is the one setting up the meeting with the museum in Apia.