TUNU: A CLOTH OF NECESSITY, SPIRITUALITY & RESISTANCE

By: Jasmine Chavez Helm

Tunu cloth is a relatively unknown form of bark cloth from the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras (figure 1). However, its existence has played a vital role in the lives of the Indigenous makers of this cloth, namely the Miskitu and Mayangna tribal groups, as it is part of their original material and dress culture. Tunu cloth comes from the Tunu rubber tree, which is native to the Mosquito Coast - the Atlantic coastal region that extends from southeastern Honduras through the eastern coast of Nicaragua. In this essay, I explore the significance of tunu cloth in the Miskitu and Mayangna communities as a dress object, spiritual entity, and textile of resistance.

Tunu cloth comes from the Tunu rubber tree, which is native to the Mosquito Coast - the Atlantic coastal region that extends from southeastern Honduras through the eastern coast of Nicaragua.

Tunu (Castilla tunu family Moraceae), also known as tuno, is a type of tropical rubber tree that grows in the lush forests of Central America and northwest Colombia. The Miskitu and Mayangna coveted the tree for its fibrous inner bark. From 1945 to 1985, tunu attracted commercial attention from industries in the United States for its rubber, but latex extraction ended in Nicaragua with the Contra Wars (Offen 1998). Tunu cloth production for clothing declined in the early twentieth century with the forceful spread of the Moravian Christian gospel. However, Moravian missionaries who arrived on the Mosquito Coast in 1849 encouraged the Mayangna and Miskitu to create tunu bark cloth handicrafts and tourist items (Tillman 2011).

Bark cloth is an ancient fabric that has been found throughout the world, including in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America. It is most often made from the inner bark of the mulberry tree (Moraceae) family - of which the tunu tree is a member. Textile specialist Jennifer Harris explained that paper mulberry produces the “highest quality cloth” and was specifically cultivated for bark cloth production (Harris 2010).

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Culture groups throughout the globe made bark cloth for domestic and ceremonial purposes with its primary use for clothing much like the Miskitu and the Mayangna (Harris 2010).

Tunu cloth production for clothing declined in the early twentieth century with the forceful spread of the Moravian Christian gospel.

The Miskitu are the largest ethnic group in the Mosquito Coast. While originally divided into two groups during the colonial period, the Sambo-Miskitu (of African descent) and the Tawira (of local descent), today the two groups mostly identify as one. Meanwhile, the Mayangna are a smaller Indigenous group that primarily inhabit the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region. In both cultures, women were traditionally in charge of the manufacture of bark cloth with the assistance of their children.

Anthropologist Eduard Conzemius details the preparation of tunu cloth; he explains that first a tunu tree is cut down, stripped of its bark, and soaked in water for a few days (1932). The sticky gum or milk that arises on the soaked bark is scraped off and the sheets of bark are dried. The drying process is referred to as kunsi. In the kunsi state, the bark shrinks and is resubmerged

in water before it is pounded. The bark is then laid on a tree trunk and a short, thick, club-like mallet called a kahka or a para is used to beat the cloth as it softens and slightly stretches into a pliable pale brownish cloth (Conzemius 1932). Conzemius points out the process is similar to the way bark cloth is manufactured in Oceania (1932). A photograph from the 1930s shows a child participating in the tunu drying process (figure 2). The sheets of bark are draped over wooden poles and left to dry outside. Once dried, the malleable sheets can be fabricated into sheets, curtains, and clothing.

The Miskitu and the Mayangna primarily used tunu cloth for clothing during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Few, if any, images exist of tunu cloth clothing from those eras; however, descriptions of tunu clothing are noted in several colonial texts. Both men and women used tunu cloth for their apparel. Traditionally, men wore loincloths made from tunu bark, while women wrapped tunu cloth around their hips for skirts (figure 3). The earliest known depiction of a Miskitu is a print by Caspar Luyken that illustrates a Miskitu king wearing a loincloth standing before a prostrating figure (figure 4). Based on the date of the print, his loincloth would have likely been made from the bark of the tunu tree. Men were also documented wearing tunu tunics, but women typically went topless. Women began to wear cotton tops due to the influence of Moravian missionaries. The young woman in a photograph captioned a “typical heathen girl” may be wearing an embellished tunu cloth wrap skirt with a cotton top (figure 5). The skirt has an all-over vertical chevron pattern, with small stripes running along the top and bottom horizontal edges and a large stripe at its center. The variation of values in the black and white photo indicates different colors present on the cloth. The Miskitu and Mayangna utilized a range of natural dyes and pigments to colour tunu cloth.

Sukias, Miskitu healers, were in charge of the spiritual task of decorating tunu cloth. Sukias have a central role in Miskitu and Mayangna culture and they can be men or women. The Sukia role is hereditary. They are not only healers but are consulted for a variety of reasons, Conzemius explains:

“He is consulted in order to find out the whereabouts of a lost or stolen object, and he furnishes remedies to cure ill luck, to influence the heart of a person of the opposite sex, to increase the valor and courage of a man, and the like. He will inform the hunter how to proceed in order to secure plenty of game, for he has generally a good knowledge of the instincts and habits of animals. If he is unsuccessful, he claims that his client has transgressed some prescriptions”(1932).

They can cast spells including “evil” ones. White tunu cloth is also used in spell casting; a Mayangna sukia can inflict disease or death

Figure 3: Detail of Miskito Indians, possibly Tawira Miskitos, 1894. Photo from: Popular Science Monthly 45:12, printed with permission Figure 5: A typical heathen girl (showing primitive skirt), c. 1930 Photo from: Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, printed with permission

upon a subject by stabbing a doll or puppet made of white tunu bark. They also can shapeshift into jaguars or snakes. Sukias are also responsible for decorating white tunu cloth using red clay, charcoal, and vegetable juice, imbuing it with sacred energy (1932). Nineteenth-century British writer, Charles Nappier Bell, grew up on the Bluefields Coast and noted the cloth “had different colors and drawings. Sometimes they were interwoven or embroidered with duck or eagle feathers” (Castro-Frenzel and Lacayo 2011). In response to Nappier Bell’s observation of the decorated tunu cloth, authors Arturo Castro-Frenzel and José Mejía Lacayo state: “this makes us think that the Mayangnas, before the arrival of the Moravian catechists, gave tunu...a functional use as clothing, [and it] gave them freedom of artistic imagination” (2011). Only a handful of extant examples of tunu bark cloth exist in museum collections. However a cotton robe in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, of Mayangna culture provides insight into Mayangna’s embellishment style (figure 6) (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). The cloth is embroidered with rows of geometric patterns and goose-down feathers with tassels of colored beads along the top of the robe.

Missionaries often referred to the traditional dress of the Mayangna and Miskitu in a pejorative manner designating it as a heathenish display (figure 6). It is possible that missionaries associated tunu cloth with heathenism due to its close relationship with sukias who were guardians and administrators of traditional Indigenous practices. The Mayangna and the Miskitu used textile production and design as a means of personal and ritual expression.

The German Moravian Missionaries arrived on the Mosquito Coast intending to convert the natives to Christianity in 1849. They referred to Miskitu and Mayangna people as “heathens” when they wore their traditional garments and textiles, proving it as an act of resistance. The Moravian Missionaries altered the material culture of the Miskitu and Mayangna and the production of tunu cloth, discouraging its use and manufacture during the late 1800s through the 1900s. Today, tunu cloth has resurged into manufacturing tourist handicrafts and artworks like potholders, bags, placemats, and more (Tillman 2011). In Honduras, sustainable tunu bark production exists in La Reserva del Hombre y Biosfera del Río Plátano, with Miskitu women at the forefront of tunu production. Artists and designers like Luz Medina Bonta from Honduras and Adilia Alemán Cunningham from Nicaragua incorporate tunu cloth and dying techniques into their work. Additionally, the artist Abner Morales creates drawings and paintings using tunu cloth as his substrate. Organizations like the Center for the Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples (CADPI) have developed community workshops and festivals to support tunu production and education to empower the Miskitu and the Mayangna in resisting colonial structures through their traditional artistic practice.

Bibliography

• Castro-Frenzel, Arturo and José Mejía Lacayo. La tela de Tuno, Revista de Temas Nicaragüenses, 43: 4-14, Noviembre 2011, 7. • Conzemius, Eduard. Ethnographical survey of the Miskito and Sumu Indians of Honduras and Nicaragua. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, 1932. • Harris, Jennifer ed. 5000 Years of Textiles. Washington DC: Smithsonian Books, 2010. • Offen, Karl. “An Historical Geography of Chicle and Tunu Gum Production in Northeastern Nicaragua.” Yearbook. Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers 24 (1998): 57-73, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25765859. • Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Online collections database. http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=direct/1/ResultLightboxView/result.t1.collection_lightbox.$TspTitleImageLink.link&sp=10&sp=Scollection&sp=SfieldValue&sp=0&sp=3&sp=3&sp=Slightbox_3x4&sp=156&sp=Sdetail&sp=0&sp=F&sp=T&sp=165. • Tillman,Benjamin. Imprints on Native Lands: The Miskitu-Moravian Settlement Landscape in Honduras. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2011.

Bio

Jasmine Chavez Helm (Pronounced: Hasmeen) grew up in La Puente, CA and New York City. She earned her BA in art history from Cal State University, Fullerton and her MA in the Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice program at FIT. Jasmine has worked as curator and archivist in Los Angeles and New York. She is passionate about exploring the cross-cultural intersections between history, art, fashion, and media. In 2015, Jasmine co-founded Unravel: A Fashion Podcast, which focuses on fashion history. She weekly co-hosts and produces episodes with her team while managing digital content on Unravel’s website. Jasmine’s current research and passion archive @recuerdosdenicaragua focuses on the dress and textile culture of the indigenous and Afro-Nicaraguans in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Jasmine recently joined the team at The Latinx Project at NYU as the Program Administrator. She is currently working on a manuscript entitled RUFF RYDER: DMX, A BIOGRAPHY ON AN AMERICAN POET. The book seeks to chronicle DMX, Earl Simmons’ life and his literary legacy.