the art of samoan siapo and hawaiian kapa tapa

There are certain threads in the Pacific that began as a humble curiosity and then keep expanding more the deeper you travel. Tapa became one of those threads for me and my voyaging across the Pacific

What started in Hawaiʻi through kumu kapa Dalani Tanahy later continued in American Samoa through siapo practitioner and arts professor Reggie Meredith. Looking back now, I can see that this was part of a much larger journey already taking shape inside One Ocean, One People, one that follows tapa across Oceania not only as an art form, but as a living expression of identity, memory, skill, and cultural identity.

This short film that resulted was only a glimpse of the deeper meaning behind it marking one of the early moments where I began connecting the dots between islands through tapa and seeing more clearly how this art carries both shared roots and distinct island expression.

Tapa Became One of My Pacific Threads

Alongside language, dance, the canoe, and other cultural elements, Tapa was one of them that intrigues me. When people think of Pacific arts, they often think in broad strokes and see beauty, texture, design, and tradition. But the deeper I have moved through Oceania, the more I have come to understand that these forms carry much more than appearance.They carry lineage. They carry labor. They carry the teachings of elders, the passing down of knowledge, and the resilience of practices that have had to survive generations of disruption and change.

Tapa, whether expressed through Hawaiian kapa or Samoan siapo as shown in this segment of the voyage, began to feel like one of those living Pacific threads that could lead me from island to island while still holding a deeper connection underneath. Not because every place is “the same”, but because each place reveals its own relationship to the material, to the process, and to the cultural meaning it still carries today in evolved forms.

Kapa, Dalani in Hawaiʻi Was the Beginning

My tapa journey truly began in Hawaiʻi with kumu kapa Dalani Tanahy who was already integral to my documentary Living Like A Hawaiian, but beyond that, she helped open the first real door into this wider tapa voyage. Through her work, it became clear that kapa was something grounded in knowledge, in process, in discipline, and in the continued life of Hawaiian culture, even with the challenges seen in and around Hawai’i and the greater Pacific.

dalani tanahy kapa practitioner and artist in oahu hawaii

Hawaiʻi became the first place where I began to understand tapa not only as an art form, but as part of a larger Pacific inheritance that had evolved differently across islands and generations. Dalani’s presence in that journey gave the thread a real beginning. She helped spark the deeper curiosity that now continues to guide me across Oceania.

Siapo, Reggie in American Samoa Became the Next Step

Only a year later in American Samoa, that thread continued to expand through Reggie Meredith. Who is one of few, if not the only, active siapo teacher and practitioner in American Samoa. She is also a professor of the arts, someone actively passing knowledge on to the next generation. That alone gives her work a weight that goes far beyond the finished piece and It places her inside the living responsibility of keeping something moving forward in the territory.

If Dalani helped begin the tapa thread in Hawaiʻi, Reggie helped extend it into Tutuila and into the Samoan side of that wider Pacific conversation feeling like the next real step in the journey. Through her, the thread became motion through education and a clearer sense that this voyage through tapa was going to keep unfolding, in Fiji, across Melanesia, and potentially into Tonga and Aotearoa again.

What Kapa and Siapo Continue to Do Today

One of the things that stood out most to me in both Hawaiʻi and American Samoa is that this work carries meaning far beyond the visual result. The unique patterns, textures, and finished pieces in both cultures may be what first draw people in, but it’s about the life and legacy revolving in and around them.

The patience and time required in the process alongside the enduring means in a changing world where modern materials have often replaced older ways out of convenience and even extraction. The reality that preservation only occurs because people continue to share it’s significant, continue to teach, continue to practice, and continue to believe that this art is in fact history in motion. They are part of cultural identity, how knowledge thrives, and part of how people remain connected to what came before, even while living in the present.

This Is Only the Beginning of the Tapa Voyage

What I know now from the time this short documentary and post gets published, is that this is only the beginning of this voyaging thread through tapa. This small bridge between Hawaiʻi and American Samoa has already shown me that tapa will be one of the deeper side voyages within One Ocean, One People. It has become one of those Pacific threads keeps leading outward, connecting islands while also revealing their differences, their local expressions, and the ways each place has carried the art through time.

Samoa, Fiji, parts of Melanesia, and maybe even Tonga and Aotearoa again all sit somewhere on the horizon of this journey. But this early voyage is wholly grounded. Dalani in Hawaiʻi & Reggie in American Samoa. Two women, two islands, two expressions of a living Pacific art that still has much more to teach me as this voyage continues.

Ways to Support Pacific Islands Storytelling

This work is part of One Ocean, One People, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to documenting and sharing Pacific Island cultures and stories. All support helps fund fieldwork, travel to remote islands, and the production of educational storytelling across Oceania.

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