Ngatu

Ngatu

Have you ever heard of a Ngatu?  Not familiar with it? Nope, okay.  Well you’re in luck to learn all about this magnificent art!

Exactly what is a Ngatu?
Ngatu is a cloth, a cloth made from bark, that may be used for many different situations.    The cloth is created by women and young girls, they would sing traditional Tongan songs while they are forming the cloth.  Ngatu is the given Tongan name, as the Maori name is Tapa. The cloth can be worn as clothes and be able to wear during a traditional dance.

How is Ngatu made?
They first peel the bark, and they use the bark peeling to make the cloth and then they hang it up in the sun.  The bark is dipped into water to make it soft. They beat the bark with an ike so the cloth will be more thin and wide.  Next, the bark is hung\

up once again so it can dry.  After it has dried, the lay pieces of material on a table and it becomes the backing of the ngatu.  They spread a paste that is made out of flour and water onto the material. They then safely set down the feta’aki on top of the material.  Then, the cloth is leisurely rolled up into one piece and pick it up to take it outside. They unroll the ngatu to be shown to sun and left to dry.  Last but not least, the women will design or as in paint onto the ngatu with brown dye.

My Ngatu
The picture at the top is my design of a tapa cloth.  The creation of this was quite hard because we had to do layers of our prints.  We were inspired by photos of different Tapa cloths on the internet. That’s when we decided to chose 2 designs we like and use them.  A very popular pattern was the flower and another pattern which is quite difficult to describe but I can mostly say it has triangles.

The significance
Ngatu is important to Tonga because it is part of their culture for the past years.  As said before, it can be used for many different situations. Surprisingly, it can also be used a kite.  Ngatu can be used for different types of occasions, like a birthday and also for funerals. This can be passed down generation by generation and can be noticed by others who are not Tongan.

Lastly, to wrap this up, the ngatu is part of the Tongan culture.  It can be used for special occasions and also can be used for an activity; as in traditional dances.  

What I found difficult: I found it difficult to put the text in my own words because I personally think the original text was awesome. What I found easy: I took a few notes in my literacy book and tried to memorise the bits and pieces I have. So, to make it easy I had memorised and put it onto here. What I could do next time: Next time I should try and write more than just short sentences.