An online publication which features the age old craft of making natural dyes and applying them, Turkey Red Journal, features an article by local artist Regina Meredith-Fitiao of the Fine Arts Department at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC).
Meredith-Fitiao’s piece titled, “Dyes for Samoan Siapo with a focus on ‘O’a” appears in the Fall 2017 edition.
The article describes in great detail the process by which local artists transform bark scrapings from the ‘O’a tree into the brown dye of the same name.
Meredith-Fitiao emphasizes the care for the environment which goes into the bark collection, such as rubbing soil into the area of the tree which has been scraped in order to aid the tree’s own recovery process.
She discusses the method for extracting the rich brown dye from the bark scrapings, and concludes with the procedure for applying the ‘O’a dye to the u’a (paper mulberry) cloth which serves as the “canvas” for the siapo.
Meredith-Fitiao also notes how most of this information has come directly from her late mentors, siapo masters Mary Pritchard and her daughters Marylyn Pritchard Walker and Adeline Pritchard Jones.
Turkey Red Journal editor and publisher Pamela Feldman in her introductory note explains how the connection with Meredith-Fitiao was forged.
Feldman’s son Tristan visited American Samoa earlier this year as part of the Sea Education Association and relayed back to his mother word of the siapo artwork being done in the territory.
In addition to the artistic aspects of Samoan siapo, Feldman appreciated the nature-friendly approach of the indigenous-rooted process.
She wrote, “It is our intent to help dyers worldwide to communicate and share ideas about natural dyes and dye processes, and to promote the use of natural dyes in a manner that does not harm the environment or endanger personal safety.”
