Handmade in the Pacific

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Series exploring traditional artefacts in Australia, Rurutu, New Zealand and Hawaii.

Documentary series which gives viewers a rare and intimate insight into the creative processes and cultural significance of traditional artefacts in Australia, Rurutu, New Zealand and Hawaii.

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Handmade in the Pacific: Kapa

Dalani Tanahy

Alex Brisland

Russell Barnes

Rob Franz

Clare Burns

Chapin Hall

ClearStory Ltd

Handmade in the Pacific: Series 1: Episode 4: Kapa

Kapa

Episode 4

Episode 4: Kapa

Series 1

BBC Four - Handmade in the Pacific, Series 1, Kapa

Hawaiian artist Dalani Tanahy creates a traditional 'hula' skirt from tree bark.

For artist Dalani Tanahy, the painstaking process of creating 'kapa' - cloth made from tree bark - symbolises the resurgence of indigenous Hawaiian pride and identity.

Indigenous Hawaiian artist Dalani Tanahy spends weeks painstakingly beating tree bark into a sheets of cloth-like fabric. This ancient Hawaiian artform known as 'kapa' was once the staple material of the islands. But after Captain Cook introduced cotton, and the Americans overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy, kapa-making completely disappeared. 

Dalani is one of a handful of dedicated practitioners who has spent her life bringing this artform back. Why? Because kapa-making has become integral to the nascent Hawaiian cultural nationalism that is taking hold in indigenous communities of Hawaii. Kapa-making has become a powerful source of pride and identity, but it's a lot of work. Trees have to be planted and tended, cut, stripped, and the bark beaten and fermented. Then sheets of bark are joined together to make a single sheet. Natural dyes and paints are printed on. And only then is the kapa ready to be worn. 

Dalani takes us through the process of making a piece of kapa from start to finish, and delivers her kapa to a dancer, who plans to use this kapa as a traditional 'hula' skirt. 

The film ends with an emotional performance at the Royal Palace in Honululu, Hawaii. A traditional 'hula' dance is performed, to honour Hawaii's last monarch, Queen Lilo'uokalani. Like the kapa itself, the Queen, rudely overthrown by Americans, has become a symbol of reborn Hawaiian identity.

Handmade in the Pacific: Series 1

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Episode 4: Kapa

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