Tapa beater

The tapa beater is a tool that has been used by pacific cultures for centuries to make a traditional bark cloth, known as tapa. Tapa is primarily made in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but it has also been made in Java, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii.

Developed as part of the art project series "Ghosts in the form of gifts" commissioned by Massey University Wellington, New Zealand in 2009.

Project page: http://bronwyn.co.nz/projects/gifts/

The series won the 2010 Award for Open Source in the Arts (NZ)

Ghosts in the form of gifts is a series of objects that are replicas of artifacts imagined as lost, hidden or misregistered during the Museum of New Zealand’s tenure in the former Museum Building on Buckle St, now occupied by Massey University’s College of Creative Arts. The objects have been created through a process of drawing, digital 3D rendering, and finally printing with the RepRap.

The digital files for the artefacts are freely available for educational re-use