Fanny Wonu Veys is Curator Oceania at the National Museum of World Cultures, The Netherlands. She is President of the Pacific Arts Association Europe and has been a research fellow at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, France and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA.

• 1. IntroductionENCOUNTERS2. Awakening European Minds3. Creating Barkcloth4. Collecting BarkclothCREATIVITY5. Creativity in Shapes and Forms 6. Between the Cross and the Cloth FEMALE AGENCY7. Capturing the ‘Female Essence’?8. A Feast for the Senses9. Conclusion: Encounters, Creativity and Female AgencyAppendixGlossaryBibliography Index

This inter-disciplinary study focuses on dynamic processes encompassed in the complex materiality of Tongan barkcloth. The author synthesizes archival, photographic, ethnographic, and museum object data to highlight how contemporary textiles impact humans’ senses. She deftly theorizes the objects’ roles in Tongan historical encounters, notions of creativity, and female agency.

Fanny Wonu Veys is Curator Oceania at the National Museum of World Cultures, The Netherlands. She is President of the Pacific Arts Association Europe and has been a research fellow at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, France and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA.

• 1. IntroductionENCOUNTERS2. Awakening European Minds3. Creating Barkcloth4. Collecting BarkclothCREATIVITY5. Creativity in Shapes and Forms 6. Between the Cross and the Cloth FEMALE AGENCY7. Capturing the ‘Female Essence’?8. A Feast for the Senses9. Conclusion: Encounters, Creativity and Female AgencyAppendixGlossaryBibliography Index

This inter-disciplinary study focuses on dynamic processes encompassed in the complex materiality of Tongan barkcloth. The author synthesizes archival, photographic, ethnographic, and museum object data to highlight how contemporary textiles impact humans’ senses. She deftly theorizes the objects’ roles in Tongan historical encounters, notions of creativity, and female agency.

Fanny Wonu Veys is Curator Oceania at the National Museum of World Cultures, The Netherlands. She is President of the Pacific Arts Association Europe and has been a research fellow at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, France and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA.

• 1. IntroductionENCOUNTERS2. Awakening European Minds3. Creating Barkcloth4. Collecting BarkclothCREATIVITY5. Creativity in Shapes and Forms 6. Between the Cross and the Cloth FEMALE AGENCY7. Capturing the ‘Female Essence’?8. A Feast for the Senses9. Conclusion: Encounters, Creativity and Female AgencyAppendixGlossaryBibliography Index

This inter-disciplinary study focuses on dynamic processes encompassed in the complex materiality of Tongan barkcloth. The author synthesizes archival, photographic, ethnographic, and museum object data to highlight how contemporary textiles impact humans’ senses. She deftly theorizes the objects’ roles in Tongan historical encounters, notions of creativity, and female agency.