INTEREST IN MAORI CRAFT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 2

INTEREST IN MAORI CRAFT

Along with other crafts, there has been a revival of interest in flax weaving and an instruction course is planned in Canterbury next January. The tutor will be Miss Cath Brown, advisor in art and craft to the Education Department in Christchurch. Last week. Miss Brown instructed at what was possibly the first Maori flax weaving school to be held in Wellington.

The renewed Interest in all Maori culture, and weaving in particular, was in line with what was happening in other crafts. Miss Brown said yesterday. People were starting to make use of the natural material available. “As things become more mechanised, people have time for crafts, which are really ’elsure activities. This is, perhaps, a result of. as much as i reaction to, the machine ige.” Miss Brown, who is of South Island Maori extraction, works with teachers and children in the Christchurch area and sometimes Instructs student teachers in Maori studies. Lack Of Teachers

In schools, there was a terrific Interest in flax weaving but until recently few instructors were available, she said. Many elderly Maori women were adept at weaving but did not know how to teach the art to others.

“I think flax weaving should be adapted to changes in our way of life. The shapes of baskets, for example, should be adapted to suit our modern clothing,” said Miss Brown. She has tried several modern versions of basket shapes. For Bishop Miss Brown has just completed some taniko weaving for a cope at present being made for the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt Rev. W. A. Pyatt). The weaving is a small piece at the front In her spare time. Miss Brown works with Maori clubs and women’s groups, teaching them the lost art of weaving. She starts by demonstrating basic points and beginners almost immediately start making items such as mats and baskets. These incorporate the principles of weaving but are not necessarily in Maori patterns. Different varieties of flax were suited to different

things, she said. Some flax was boiled to make it creamy for finer items, such as kits (envelope-style hand bags). If boiled for more than two minutes, however, it would go brown.

The photograph shows Miss Brown demonstrating the weaving of a small fruit basket.