Ropes

A lot of rope is used to tie canoe parts together and to make the rigging GLOSSARY rigging - the ropes that control the sail and mast . Very strong rope is made from plants like vines, hibiscus, and coconut. This is the process for coconuts.

1. You put coconut husks GLOSSARY husks - outside layers in water for some weeks to remove the soft, weak parts. [View video]

2. After, you dry the wet fibres GLOSSARY fibres - strings in the sun and then join them together in small bunches.

To start a length of rope, you pull a few fibres from the middle of the bunch and rub them together against your thigh.

Then you rub the end of the first group of fibres together with the end of the next few fibres, and so on. [View video]

5. To make thick rope, you weave several of these lengths together. Many people help make the rope. [View video]

6. Rope-making is a skill that children learn and practice from an early age. [View video]

Nifiloli community members

Taumako children gather coconut husks, and bury them in the sand below the tideline for a few weeks.

Nifiloli community workers pound it to separate out the long fibers. Then they twist the fibers into strands, and either twist two strands together, or braid together two or three strands into sennit rope. They also use the inner bark of mulberry and long lines of people twist it into ropes for rigging the sail of the canoe.

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