Only on Important Occasions

Te Ao Hou, March 1966, Page 13

Only on Important Occasions Presentations of fine mats are made only on special occasions. Such occasions are: on the death of a high chief or some other important person; at weddings; at openings of churches, schools and other important buildings; at the christening of children of high birth; as a peace-offering for some crime or offence. The mats are worn only by the taupou (princess) or manaia (prince) during important social functions, or when they are meeting important or royal persons. Fine mats are of the highest value for the honour and prestige associated with them, and also for their monetary value (this varies from £25 to £50). Such is their importance that a fine mat has been known to free a murderer, and one is quite often given as a recompense for minor crimes. These beautiful mats are therefore among the most precious possessions that a Samoan can own. The stone which is reputed to have been the ballast of Kupe's canoe when he landed at Hokianga in A.D. 950 has been erected at Pakanae, one mile from Opononi, as a memorial to the Polynesian explorer. The photographer Miss Ans Westra, much of whose work has appeared in ‘Te Ao Hou’, has left for Europe on a working holiday. A large book of her photographs portraying the life of the Maori people will be published later this year by A. H. and A. W. Reed Ltd. The resurgence of interest in Maori culture, and in particular the increase in the number of youth clubs and concert tours, has brought a boom to one of Rotorua's oldest industries—the manufacture of piupiu. Dozens of women are busy making piupiu to orders as large as 60 at a time; one street near Whakarewarewa boasts as many as 10 home manufacturers busy on piupiu production. Although piupiu fetch from £3 to £9 each, depending upon size and intricacy of pattern, there seems little chance that the market will be glutted, for making them is no easy job. Despite the fact that a few tools and Pakeha materials have simplified the art a little, it is still basically an ancient craft, performed in much the same way as it was hundreds of years ago, and relying for success on skilled fingers rather than on modern implements.