Lakalaka is Tonga's national dance: two dozen performers standing in ranks, men to the audience's right and women to the left, singing a composed poem while the arms carry the meaning and the feet barely move. The costume is built on ngatu — beaten paper-mulberry barkcloth in warm tan — layered with plaited pandanus, hibiscus fibre and fragrant leaves.

This system takes the sheet as the page. Koka bark dye and umea clay fill the fields, tongo mangrove soot draws every outline, and content sits in ruled kupesi panels arranged as long horizontal rows. Repetition with small variation, never mechanical duplication.