The invention of paper by the Chinese almost 2,000 years ago is considered one of the most pivotal discoveries in human history. Paper is at the heart of all modern civilisations – it is about communication, writing, art, science, music, political movements, history and architecture, to name but a few of the disciplines that come to life through this profoundly versatile transmitter of knowledge. 

It has been the primary medium allowing information and literacy to spread rapidly across the planet. Despite the digital revolution, paper is still used every day in societies throughout the world, including here in Samoa. While paper can hold a lot of information, the knowledge of how paper was discovered and how it is made today is not generally known to those who benefit from its use. From paper money to textbooks, from newspapers to Holy Books, there are literally hundreds of ways humans interact with paper every day.

With so much of this functional product in use, it is not surprising that paper and cardboard make up the largest share of waste generated in Samoa. A World Bank report on waste published in September 2021 found that of the almost 27,067 tonnes of waste generated annually in Samoa, roughly one-quarter is paper and cardboard equating to 6,258 tonnes.

Siapo, printed bark cloth also known as tapa, is the closest traditional craft to paper made in pre-European contact Samoa. Artisans all over the archipelago still make siapo today but the craft that mainly occupies women is not as widespread as it once was and u’a, the paper mulberry trees used to make siapo, are now only found in villages where there are siapo makers still practising their craft. As the craft dies, the u’a trees are no longer cultivated and protected and can quickly vanish from the environment as they are edible to pigs.

It is the inner bark or bast of the u’a tree that is used to make siapo and the traditional technique involves beating the bast with a wooden mallet, i’e, on a wooden anvil, tutua. Through a process of repeated beating and folding, the inner bark can be widened to up to 10 times the width of the original strip peeled from the tree.

The paper mulberry tree is native to Asia and was introduced to Samoa by the earliest settlers in the archipelago. It is believed to be the most widely transported fibre crop in the prehistory of the region, having been deliberately transported and cultivated in the islands of near and remote Oceania. In China, the paper mulberry tree has been used to make paper ever since it was invented there some two millennia ago. How this paper was made and is still made in China and in other countries is very different to how siapo is made in Samoa. Rather than stretching the bast by beating, the raw material is broken down into individual fibres to create a pulp.

Another machine used in modern paper making invented almost 400 years ago around 1680, makes the processing of plant fibres into a pulp much more efficient and is called a Hollander Beater, named after the country where it was invented.

Plant cell walls are made of a complex carbohydrate called cellulose. Wood is made of 40-50 per cent cellulose. Cotton is made of almost 90 per cent cellulose. To make paper, one must break down the plant cellulose into separate fibres with the help of water.

The water dissolves out some of the glucose molecules from within the cellulose. When the pulp is later spread out to dry, the glucose molecules re-bond with the cellulose and help hold the fibres together to create paper. Water, and lots of it, is an essential component throughout this process.

Handmade paper converts the pulp into paper using a deckle, a wood frame covered with a mesh such as a nylon screen, and a mould, another wood frame that is placed on top of the deckle to actually form the paper.

The screened deckle acts as a sieve through which the pulp is passed, leaving behind a layer of interlocked cellulose fibres that chemically bond, dry and form a sheet of paper. 

The Green Paper venture at Tiapapata is supported under the Green Climate Fund Vaisigano Catchment Project administered by the Civil Society Support Programme. This initiative has established a paper-making facility at the Tiapapata Art Centre where the papers, with the additional purchase of a monotype printing press, are used mainly for artistic purposes. New, innovative paper products are also being developed.

Selected plants and trees growing in the Vaisigano Catchment Area, some of which are invasive species, are processed to make beautifully textured papers that have different colours obtained from the different plants and trees used. Processing plant leaves and the inner bark of trees to make the paper pulp or slurry involves stripping the leaves and bast, cutting them into short lengths, cooking for several hours, and then continuously pulping with the Hollander Beater. White cotton rag and waste paper can also be added, the former making the colour of the paper creamier while the latter, containing ink, creates a grey hue to the paper. Wood ash can also be added to help break down the fibres. What is not added are the chemicals commonly used in commercial paper making.

The equipment used to make paper at the Tiapapata Art Centre was built by veteran paper maker and inventor Mark Lander of Lander Critters, based in Christchurch, New Zealand. The large Hollander Beater, the Monster Critter, can process 4.5 kilograms of fibre and cotton rag in one batch. A smaller machine, the Little Critter has a capacity of just under 1 kilogram.

Among the most common trees used to make paper at Tiapapata are the fau or Beach Hibiscus, the fibrous white core of the many species of fa’i, banana plants, and the pulu mamoe or rubber tree. Other plants and trees used to make paper include lau o le Niutuma, leaves of the Polynesian Ivory Palm, and the leaves of the many varieties of pandanus, laufala and laupaogo. Investigating the potential to make paper from tamaligi, a particularly aggressive invasive species that has dramatically changed Samoa’s natural landscape, is currently underway. U’a, paper mulberry trees, have also been planted at Tiapapata for papermaking in the future.

Awal Mohammed, an expert papermaker from Ghana, has been granted a work permit to assist the Art Centre with its paper-making venture. Workshops in papermaking and printmaking have now been added to other art activities on offer at the Centre. In addition to the pulp of waste paper collected from offices in Apia, participants also learned about recycling. By removing and recycling some of the paper that would otherwise enter the waste stream, the project is creating a circular economy with an incredible product of human ingenuity.

• Galumalemana Galumalemana Steven Percival has a Bachelor of Business Studies from Massey University in New Zealand and together with his wife Wendy established and run the Tiapapata Arts Centre, a charitable trust promoting traditional and contemporary arts and crafts in Samoa.