Pictured above: Me examining my first piece of āfresh beatā wauke, a process I learned on this day from Wes Sen in our monthly wananga under my Kumu Verna. The wonderful Kumu Auliāi and Uncle Wes demonstrating scraping against wooden boards with shells. Finally Master Kapa beater Dalani scrapping off the outer bark with a knife rather than using Uncle Wesā technique of peeling off the outer bark, Dalani prefers this method. It just goes to show every kanaka have their own moves in a highly elaborate process like making kapa.
A method I learned from Wes Sen was what he called the āfresh beatā which was used for making maro, malo or clothing because it was fast and could be done in a day. (It isnāt feasible to wait a month for your malo.) This process involved stripping the outer bark off the inner bark by cutting a longitudinal line through half the thickness of the strip. You then peel back the outer bark and while resting the bark strip on your thigh you tug downwards separating the outer bark and inner bark. This process came naturally to me because of my experience making muka from harakeke. Muka is the very strong threadlike fibre that is used to weave out korowai (cloaks), ropes for lashing and all sorts of cordage. It was this material that essentially replace barkcloth in Aotearoa because its its durability and diversity. The leaves without the extraction of muka can be used to make flax baskets, hats, mats and much more, the possibilities are endless and artists like Shona Tawhiao continue to push this material to its limits, creating Avante Guarde gowns from it. When I first learned to make muka I was absolutely dumbfounded by how our ancestors came up with this process of extracting the inner fibre from the leaves. It became evident to be when stripping the outer bark f of the paper mulberry that MÄori may have unlocked the secret inner silk of the flax plant through using this very same method. This hunch is of course only grounded in my experience with working with muka and expanding my knowledge of different processes around making barkcloth.
Returning to the fresh beat process after stripping off the outter bark you are left with a white inner bark. Instead of rolling this up and soaking it for two weeks in the fermentation process that I previously learned we placed it against a wooden board and used a cerated shell to scrape it. This process of scraping required lots of water. What happens is the sap within the inner bark is squeezed out, it is this sap that oxidises with the air and makes the aute turn brown. By squeezing it out of the inner bark you are ensuring that it remains nice and white. This process of scraping also widens the strip of bark sometimes by double or even triple the width. While the fresh beat technically takes less time, the scraping park is very labour intensive, and I can vouch for having very sore triceps the next day.
Once the scraping is done, you change shells to one with a file like texture. Using this new shell you push the edges outwards to expand the strip as far as it goes, while trying to ensure it the strip of wauke remains parallel. You then the squeeze all the water out of it with the Ā dull edge of a flat shell. In Samoa they layer these wide strips of scraped wauke on top of each other before beating. I suppose this would have been done when making bulk tapa, in my case, due to the limited resource, I was only making one or two strips. The advantage to beating multiple pieces at once is you save time beating but also, the more layers there are, the more cushion between the fibre, the impact of the beating is softened and distributed through the fibres allowing the wauke to become thiner. When beating you pound with a lot of force. As well as hitting with downward force your are also sending energy outwards as you are simultaneously expanding and thinning the bark. This is where the true transformation takes place, the force of beating really stretches and softens the fibres. When the piece becomes a long thin strip, you take both ends and roll them towards each other until they meeting creating what look like a cinnamon roll. You then hit down, on both ends Ā and this loosens the folds. Then you unfold the bark to reveal a flexible, damp, white/beige fibrous cloth that can be up to six times the original width of the bark. Drying is also important, the piece needs to be flat and stretched with stones weighing it down.
This fresh beat process really transformed my perception of making tapa cloth, while physically demanding, the ability to beat immediately is exciting. There is less guessing when it comes to fermentation, a process I often found difficult to judge. Squeezing out all the sap prevents discolouration that can sometimes occur. The smell of the freshly beaten kapa is beautiful also. The possibilities seem endless and I cannot wait to push this process when I get my hands on a few more plants.
NgÄ mihi mutunga kore ki oku Kumu pai rawa atu me Ä Uncle Bruce mo tona whare haumaru.
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