Mary Jewett Pritchard (September 17, 1905 – June 6, 1992) was an American Samoan textile artist. Pritchard is widely credited with reviving the art of siapo, the Samoan version of
tapa
Tapa, TAPA, Tapas or Tapasya may refer to:
Media
*Tapas (website), a webtoon site, formerly known as Tapastic
* ''Tapas'' (film), a 2005 Spanish film
* ''Tapasya'' (1976 film), an Indian Hindi-language film
* ''Tapasya'' (1992 film), a Nepalese f ...
, handmade cloth created by pounding the bark of plants.
Early life
Mary Rose Jewett was born September 17, 1905, in
Pago Pago
Pago Pago ( ; Samoan: )Harris, Ann G. and Esther Tuttle (2004). ''Geology of National Parks''. Kendall Hunt. Page 604. . is the territorial capital of American Samoa. It is in Maoputasi County on Tutuila, which is American Samoa's main island. ...
on the island of
Tutuila
Tutuila is the main island of American Samoa (and its largest), and is part of the archipelago of Samoan Islands. It is the third largest island in the Samoan Islands chain of the Central Pacific. It is located roughly northeast of Brisbane, A ...
in American Samoa. Her parents were Felesita Fuga, member of well-known Pago Pago families, and Joseph Jewett, an American construction worker hired to build the main deck in Pago Pago Harbor. Mary attended Catholic Sisters School in Atu'u through the fifth grade, the highest level offered to girls at the time. In 1919 she left home to attend Kawaiahaʻo Seminary for Girls in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
.
Mary's father died when she was eighteen years old, shortly after she had finished her studies at the Kawaiahaʻo Seminary. She decided to stay in Samoa to support her family, taking a job doing clerical work for the government. She resigned from the Public Works Department in 1927, after marrying and becoming pregnant with her first child.
Promoting and creating siapo
Pritchard grew up surrounded by the practice of creating siapo, which was used as clothing, bedding, and in ceremonies, but her active interest in siapo began when she was a young woman. She married Ron Pritchard, from the village of Leone, in 1925. Mary and her husband spent time regularly in Leone, where she watched the women make siapo mamanu, a freehand decoration of siapo cloth.
In 1927 Pritchard began a business exporting siapo from other artists to the overseas market, along with other materials such as floor mats and hula skirts. This provided artists with a way to support their families and continue to make traditional crafts. She began learning the craft of creating and decorating siapo mamanu from the artists of Leone in 1929, especially her mentors Tui‘uli Leoso and Kolone Fai‘ivae Leoso. With the outbreak of World War II, export was cut off and the making of siapo was curtailed. After the war, it became impossible for Samoan women to make a living from making traditional handicrafts. Both the cultivation of u‘a (the
paper mulberry
The paper mulberry (''Broussonetia papyrifera'', syn. ''Morus papyrifera'' L.) is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae. It is native to Asia, This exposure led to increased requests to make personal appearances describing the importance of siapo and demonstrating its creation; she traveled widely throughout the Pacific, Asia, and North America sharing her expertise. The
South Pacific Commission
The Pacific Community (PC), formerly the South Pacific Commission (SPC), is an international development organisation governed by 27 members, including 22 Pacific island countries and territories. The organisation's headquarters are in Nouméa ...
began marketing siapo in their handicraft catalogues.
''Siapo : bark cloth art of Samoa'' was written by Pritchard and published in 1984 by the American Samoa Council on Arts, Culture and the Humanities; the book shows the processes and products of siapo.
Death and legacy
Pritchard died in Pago Pago on June 6, 1992.
Governor of American Samoa
Peter Tali Coleman
Peter Tali Coleman (December 8, 1919 – April 28, 1997) was an American Samoan politician and lawyer. Coleman was the first and only person of Samoan descent to be appointed Governor of American Samoa between 1956 and 1961, and later became ...
described the importance of Pritchard's work:
A show honoring Pritchard was held at the Jean P. Haydon Museum in 1991. Examples of her siapo are located in the Bishop Museum and the
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...