HISTORY  OF  TIVAEVAE 

TIVAEVAE.   The word is as Polynesian in flavour as the exotic  names of the pacific places it belongs to: the Cook Islands of Rarotonga, Aitutaki Mangaia, Atiu.  A visit to them is a visit to paradise. 

To translate the word  tivaevae is to risk losing its  meaning and  poetry.  The ‘loose’ translation – Polynesian bedcover – is  inadequate, while the literal alternative – to patch repeatedly- is too narrow.  To simplify matters, tivaevae is a term that is now used to refer to all appliqué and piecework fabrics from the islands of Polynesia. 

It is not certain how and when Western quilts and quilting techniques were introduced to the Cook Islands.  The piecework style may have been introduced some time after 1827, when the first European missionaries of the London Missionary Society arrived.  

Western piecework quilts provided models for the earliest forms of Polynesian tivaevae, but that was not the only source. Many of the design principles and construction techniques ‘borrowed’ from the Western  tradition and accepted by Polynesian women were direct extensions of bark cloth traditions applied to a new medium. 

Historically, tivaevae were made in bold, contrasting colours. Greens and oranges on white; scarlet on gold; and printed calico on white, were popular. But brilliant red on white was the most popular and the prevalent colour combination for early quilts. 

The method of cutting an overall design from a single piece of fabric is unique to Polynesia. One traditional story tells how a woman traced the shadow of the tree’s leaves onto a piece of cloth, then cut out the design and appliquéd it to another cloth. 

Close relatives often make or have made a tivaevae to present to a child at birth or on the 1^st birthday.  In older Polynesian customs, the newborn infant was wrapped in a piece of bark cloth and on it’s first birthday was honoured with gifts of bark cloth. That custom is still practiced in parts of  Polynesia.  People  bestow gifts of tivaevae on other birthdays as well.  In the Cook Islands, where people recognize the twenty-first birthday as the age of majority, tivaevae often figure as gifts and decoration.

In the Cook Islands, many people still observe a special ceremony for boys.  The rite is celebrated with a hair-cutting ritual called pakotianga rouru.  A family intending  to celebrate the event allows the child’s hair to grow long from infancy.  The ceremony is usually held when the boy is aged between eight years and early adolescence.  Individual guests take turns cutting the boy’s hair, which is bound into braids or separate sections.  The number of braids an individual is entitled to cut is based on the amount of money and the presents that he or she has given. 

Along with clothes and some personal items, people often give the boy household articles. He and his future bride will use these when he matures and marries.  Tivaevae sometimes figure among the presents that people deem appropriate for the occasion.  However the most impressive and important use of Cook Island tivaevae in the ritual is for decorating the area in which the boy is seated for the hair cutting. 

Throughout eastern Polynesia, tivaevae (or Tifaifai as they are known as in Hawai’i) appear in weddings more often than in any other ritual context.   

They are also used in death rituals. The tivaevae express the love, esteem and personal loss felt for the deceased. 

This occurs especially in the Cook Islands. Relatives and friends often strive to place several tivaevae in the grave to indicate their regard for the dead person.

Today Cook Island women hold tivaevae exhibitions and contests.  These occasions allow the women to establish their reputations as artists and many fine pieces are produced by them.