Reggie Meredith, our wonderful tapa maker and practitioner in American Samoa, sent us this photo of her weeding and maintaining her u’a (paper mulberry) patch a couple of weeks ago. Hearty and resilient, she says that she hopes that our global community can reflect these traits of the u‘a so that we can get through the COVID-19 pandemic together. These very u‘a are what she and Uilisone have spent much time preparing and nuturing in order to use in our Barkcloth Basics museum workshops and public events.
While we are still in the process of trying to reorganise the workshops, we are hoping that they may be able to go ahead at the end of August 2020, but only if it is safe to do so. We will keep updating everyone as time goes on and thank you for the interest and enthusiasm that has been shown in participating in them!