Roots of Aloha This vessel is the IPU, a gourd Hawaiian use for holding food ant water, tapa cloth, and several objects. It is sometimes carried in woven ‘IE’IE roots for use ant protection. As a ritual drum, it is crafted as IPU HEKE ‘OLE’. Two gourds glued or seem together is IPUHULAA an instrument of utmost importance for Hula dance. As IPUKUA’AHA it stores the highly revered medicinal plant and ceremonial offering ‘AWA. The great legendary “calabash of the winds” is IPU MAKANI , and is the cosmic calabash”. The IPU is considered the world its seeds stars, and its cover is the dome of heaven. The tapa cloth is produced by hand beating Mulberry strip witha wooden mallet against a tree base. After three hours or more each sheet becomes flexible. Modern attempts at developing machinery to replace these hand crafted methods have been a complete failure. Finally the sheets are joined by gluing them together with root crop starches. Master skill is necessary to meld sheets together for consistent thickness. Creations of the most skilled tapa makers are smoothly and seamlessly bonded. After drying in the sun for several days the cloth is bleached. Then the process of soaking, dying and bleaching is repeated tomake the finalproduct for decoration. Theoriginal designs were squares,triangles chevron bars,circles, diamonds etc. While superficially simple, these designs always conveyed a complex symbology known within the native culture. Painting is mostly done with Pandanus fruit brushes or coconut husks. Several hundred extracts from natural surroundings have been developed as dyes. This Genuine Tapa artwork archival giclee 8”x10” and 11”x14” are matted, shrink-wrapped and accompanied by an explanation of the tapa and the IPU.