MAORI CLOAKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1939, Page 10

MAORI CLOAKS

THE ART OF WEAVING

ANCIENT LEGEND

Students of Maori manners and customs before the of European civilisation were no doubt interested in a recent report from London describing the sale in an auction room of a kiwi cloak, formerly part of 'the Auckland Museum collection. Incidentally, * the cloak was wrongly described in the report as a "kiwi feather cloak or korowai." The word "korowai" is properly used only of cloaks woven of native flax and kiekie. Kiwi feather cloaks were known as kahu kiwi.

Native cloaks or shoulder mats, according to the material of which they were made, sometimes indicated the rank ©f the wearer. Most prized of all were cloaks, covered with kaka parrot feathers. They were known as kahu kura and were essentially the mantle of high chieftainship. Next in order came the kiwi feather cloaks, which were usually worn by women of rank.

Reference to cloaks of this type is made by Makarete, sometime chieftainess of the Arawa tribe, and known in New Zealand as Maggie Papakura, in her book "The Old-time Maori." In her book a photograph of Maori garments, including a feather cloak, is described as follows:—"Wool and kiwi cloak, Whakahekeheke kiwi, and huka huka mat (49in by 46in) worn by me at King George's Coronation." /

"The Maori was acquainted with a rude form of weaving and the »art is said in Native myth to have originated with or to be under the patronage of Hine-te-Cjvaiawa, also known as Hina, who is a personification of the moon," writes Elsdon Best in "The Maori As He Was." "Another old myth is to the effect that when Mataora visited the spirit world he brought back with him to this world the knowledge of the art of tattooing, and also a famous cloak and belt known as Te Rangi Haupapa and Te Ruruku-o-te-rangi. They were utilised as patterns for garments by the men and women of this world who have ever since continued to weave garments in a similar manner."

Weaving operations were surrounded by Native ritual and superstition. For instance it was considered unlucky to weave a superior garment in the open air, after sunset, or in the presence of strangers. Feather cloaks were made by knotting the feathers into the flax thread which formed the basis of the garment. '