Brisbane Blog

The Museum of Brisbane is starting a new exhibition this Friday, July 24 2009. It’s about the tapa cloth of the Pacific islands, which is often used to tell stories and make large-scale decorations. The Museum of Brisbane is open 7 days a week from 10am to 5pm and entry is free. The Museum of Brisbane is in the Brisbane City Hall, between Adelaide and Ann Streets in Brisbane City – the City Hall faces King George Square. Click here for a Google Map.

This Creative Commons photo of two birds made out of tapa cloth was taken by flickr user Robyn Gallagher at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2006. Click here for more photos of hers from the Pasifika Festival in 2006.

The exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane shows wall hangings, old and new clothing including wedding dresses and loin cloths. Decorations include plants and animals, and clan and family patterns.

If you’d like to know more about tapa cloth you can look at the Wikipedia article, or there are some photos here of the Museum of New Zealand’s collection held in Wellington, and also some photos if you click here, from the Virtual Oceana website.

Tapa cloth in the exhibition will come from Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.