MAORI WEAVING

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 102, 16 January 1923, Page 3

MAORI WEAVING

evolution of the art. Tho evolution of the art of weaving amongst tho Maoris was the subject of an address given bv Dr. Buck .o the ethnological and anthropological section of the Science Congress- vesterd.-v. Tho Maoris of New Zea.and were tl-e onlv Polynesian branch which nracUsed weaving to any extent, said Dr. Buck, the art of making bark moth havin'* taken its place largely elsewhere. and the activities of plaitin’* basketry and netting. When the Maori emigrated to New Zealand be brought tbo pnppr mulbcrrv with him to provide clothim*, but the wet c.imato ot New Zealand was unsuitable to bark cloths. laical material was too coarse for plaitin'*, and the art of weaving was revived in New Zealand flax. Dnstons were obtained from basketry, liv the Moriori, in Hm Chathams, skin clothing'was adopted and weaving fo,-o-otten until thev exhausted tlie supply. He was trvim* to re-iuvent we-'-ins* when the Maori descended on him and solved his problems in a different "From the p’nin twined weaving with a two-plv weft, derived from the co' trap, the Maori inventor pro<*rossod To the four-nlv weft with yhich his better class of garment is made Closetwined weaving was a further development and the wrapped twining ucaiim* in the beautiful geometrical co.our designs of taniko borders marked the htohest advance of a’l. The two-nmnted sticks upon which Maori weaving is cct un is not a degenerate representative of a forgotten loom, but an independent creation invented dunng a few centuries. . . , The nd'h-e's w"s <wconi"'’nied bv a scries of films and slides. The rapidity of Hie plaifim* processes.bv women, a series of films descriptive of winch sneciallv were taken up th” Mangnnm River for the nurnotos of the congiess, elicited general aapl’ineQ-