Weaving Cloaks and Whakataukī: A Memoir

Abstract

Beginning with holiday work in the ethnology workroom at Auckland War Memorial Museum, the author, a social anthropologist, traces the development of her lifelong interest and involvement in the Māori art of weaving harakeke ‘Māori flax’ (Phormium tenax). Special attention is given to the weaving of whatu ‘ceremonial cloaks’ and the weaving of words and metaphors in whakataukī ‘proverbs and sayings’, poetry and storytelling. In the process she shares treasured memories of learning, from and with Māori friends and mentors expert in these arts, and emphasises the continual interweaving of contemporary transformations with inherited traditions in response to changing times.