Before people started making baskets, birds were weaving their nests for the protection and comfort of their little ones. Every culture has had some form of baskets to gather and carry their goods. Today, baskets are more for decorative uses. Many earthy materials have been used to make baskets: pine needles, willows, leaves, roots, grasses, vines, bark, and more. Hundreds of years of tradition and technique have been passed down to each generation.
When we visited Tonga, I was fascinated by the women who were weaving mats or baskets. Using coconut fronds, the baskets are woven with skill. Sitting on the ground, chatting to each other like a quilting bee, these ladies have a circle of camaraderie.
While researching, I read that while many other crafts have been mechanized, no one has ever invented a machine to make baskets. Basket weaving is perhaps our earliest craft using biodegradable sources. I think plants and animals are our oldest teachers! We can learn so much from our environment.
Making baskets from plants is a practice from Tongan ancient ancestral art. To learn to do something for their culture with their own hands and using nature is magic.
The fronds are cut, the prickly parts cut off, and then left to dry out in the sun. They are then rolled up until ready to be used. I hope the weaving never disappears with the next generation. In ancient times, the baskets were made for the nobles and kings, and used at wedding and funeral ceremonies.
These are baskets that I purchased over 20 years ago in Tonga! They still look like they were made yesterday.
The basket makers of Tonga are purists and artists, those who fell the tree or branch, cut it, dry it, and make it, while many are in the other category of purchasing the materials and then making the basket. Polynesians are one of the last few cultures that use their environment for practical means. This braiding of the fronds, the intertwining, is a blend of spirits, earth, and stories of the past.
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