Word: tifaifai
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...woven pandanus fiber and painted mulberry bark for thousands of years, fashioning ceremonial objects of great spiritual and aesthetic value, these mats and tapa cloths would undergo a revolution with the help of needle and thread brought by missionaries. In Hawaii and Tahiti, appliqu?d quilts (kapa kuiki and tifaifai, respectively) overtook tapa in importance, while to the west sewing was incorporated into the making of fine mats, fringed now with wool rather than feathers, turning these traditional markers of weddings, births and funerals into textured tapestries of national genealogy. As Tonga's Queen Salote famously declared, "Our history is written...
...pair of hibiscus flowers added by Poutasi's daughter Tusi Luafutu when she emigrated to Australia in 1991. It's quite clear who rules the roost. Played out in these textiles are imaginative alternate universes, where the deposed Pomare kings and queens of Tahiti live on in the triumphant tifaifai of Aline Amaru. With her kapa kuiki laden with royal insignia, Hawaiian Gussie Bento too unstitches the spread of colonization. To protest the overthrow of their monarchy in the late 19th century, Hawaiian women quilted native flags, which they hung over their beds. These days, quilters like Bento might colonize...
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