Tapa cloth

Unlike many other historical artefacts, in which there is scant documentation of either the origins or maker(s), this piece of tapa has a signature, so to speak. On the border of the barkcloth siapo, one reads the following inscription: “Produced by Faapouliuli Letua in Sasina”. Faapouliuli was probably the first name and Letua the surname of the person who lived in Sasina, a village in northern Savai’i on the main island of Samoa.