Kete Whakairo: Plaiting Flax for Beginners
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About this ebook
Anyone can learn to plait a kete whakairo from the long blades of harakeke, commonly known as New Zealand flax. This book Kete Whakairo plaiting flax for beginners gives detailed, step by step instructions and illustrations for plaiting a beginner's version of this type of kete.
Margaret Rose Ngawaka first became interested in her native craft of plaiting when a group of tutors were invited to teach women in a small northern community on Great Barrier Island, New Zealand in 1998. Margaret Rose has maintained this traditional art and skill. She continues this folk art of Raranga by teaching others who are interested.
Margaret rose Ngawaka
Margaret Rose Ngawaka- Iwi (Tribe)—Ngati Porou, Kahungunu, and Rongomaiwahine I live on a 148-acre offshore island on the west side of Great Barrier Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, where my husband and I have raised our seven children. Living here so remote has the challenge of not being able to attend courses of learning on the mainland (New Zealand). But I continue to strive for knowledge and understanding and seek out whatever opportunities come my way. I learned raranga in 1998, but it has been in my blood since birth. My journey with harakeke is entwined with my whakapapa (family history). When I learned to plait, I found an aunt I have never met who was an expert weaver of her time. When I learned piupiu (traditional Maori kilt), I was given a photo of my great-grandmother wearing her piupiu and learned she was a matriarch weaver of her time. This confirmed also that she was giving me permission to carry on with this treasured skill that she once excelled in. When I learned taniko, it was my mother’s sister, Aunt Hiria Okeroa Waaka, who taught me. My aunt Hiria has fond memories as a young girl being chosen to go pick kiekie and harakeke with her grandmother (my great-grandmother).This reminds me of my duty and responsibility to teach raranga and inspire hope for future mokopuna—grandchildren/posterity. There are many women more experienced and skilled than I who could have written this step-by-step book. I feel so blessed to have seen this opportunity and ran with it. I always say, “If it’s meant to be—it will be.”
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Kete Whakairo - Margaret rose Ngawaka
© Copyright 2013 Margaret Rose Ngawaka.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-4154-0 (sc)
978-1-4669-4153-3 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910694
Trafford rev. 05/29/2013
7-Copyright-Trafford_Logo.ai www.trafford.com
North America & international
toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)
phone: 250 383 6864 • fax: 812 355 4082
Dedication
To my daughters-Michele, Bianca, Samantha, Kelly and Victoria.
To my twin granddaughters: Raylee Wikitoria & Aroha Margaret Rose Ngawaka
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
Whakatauki (Proverb)
Introduction
Materials
Harakeke – Phormium Tenax
Tools
Karakia (Prayer)
Methods
Cutting
Splitting
Hapene
Raranga (Plaiting) Technique
Raranga—Plaiting.
Forming The Cylinder—Joining the sides together:
Splitting Strips
Locking off
Appendix
Glossary
References
About the Author
Acknowledgements
To all the tutors who taught me raranga.
Te Motu O Aotea-Maori Women’s Welfare League who funded raranga wananga (workshops) on Great Barrier Island.
Mick Pendergrast. You have been my inspiration to document the Kete Whakairo techniques so others can raranga in their own home.
Te Rangihiroa (Sir Peter Buck, 1877-1951). A Professor of anthropology and many other noted achievements Sir Peter Buck was the first to document and record with precise vocabulary the method used by Maori for plaiting known as Raranga.
Photographer: Author, Margaret Rose Ngawaka
Assistant photographers: my husband Matthew, daughter Victoria, and family friend Barry Williams.
Preface
Whakatauki (Proverb)
Raranga is an expression of a simpler life once lived in Aotearoa and will live on as women continue to teach this folk art . . . for as long as there’s Harakeke, the tradition will last, and plait a never ending circle.
—Margaret Rose Ngawaka
Image4329.tifINTRODUCTION
The Maori are the indigenous race of Aotearoa, more commonly known around the world as New Zealand. Raranga is the plaiting technique used by