Tapa Cloth is usually made from the the bark of the paper mulberry or breadfruit tree. The bark
is stripped from young saplings, and the white inner layers are peeled off for the tapa. These narrow strips are soaked in
water until softened; then they are pounded with mallets, which spreads the bark into increasingly wider strips until they
are about 20 - 25 cms wide. The edges are then overlapped and glued with manioc root juice, breadfruit, or arrowroot starch
to make wide sheets.
Many people in Papua New Guinea will
decorate a wall using Tapa Cloth but it is primarily used on festive occassions such as traditional dancing and other cultural
events.
