Whatu kākahu

Complete kaitaka patea cloak. Woven from muka (flax fibre) with horizontal aho (wefts). Narrow wool taniko borders on the side edges and a broad border on the bottom. Taniko is woven in black and white chevron and diamond pattern, with triangles in red, pink, green, and blue; faded throughout. The body of the cloak and the top border are undecorated.

Broken ribbonwood piupiu. A section of proper left tags missing. The tags have been arranged in alternating vertical lines of undyed and dyed (red and dark purple) bands. These tags are accompanied by four 3 ply whiri (plaits). The proper left whiri is missing. The whiri are dyed red and purple, with one whenu (strand) left undyed. The waistband is approximately 7cm wide with three weft weaves. The front of the waistband has been covered with a decorative twill (diagonal weave). The waistband has a decorative edging at the top, attached using cotton thread. At each end of the waistband a 4 ply whiri extension of different fibre has been attached. One detached tag accompanies the garment.

Complete kahu kiwi (Kiwi feather cloak). Worked in single pair twine, shaped in middle, with a kiwi feather border, all sides but more narrow along the top, and there are single kiwi feather tags throughout the centre, like polka dots, There is brown twine above the bottom kiwi feather border.There are two purple ties that end in tassels at the top edge of the kahu kiwi, approximately 6cm from each side.

Complete kahu kiwi. Feathers are intermittently worked into the cloak. There is a vertical striped design; one brown, three yellow, one brown, three yellow, one brown. Cloak is worked in two pair twine, shaped at shoulders, has reverse weaving at selvages for finishing off black twine in selvages.

Kete Whiri, a basket woven from an internal base whiri (braid). Woven with natural and dyed brown harakeke (flax) in takitahi pattern (over one, under one) with a flat bottom adaptation. Finished with an external whiri (braid) around the brim before whenu (strands) are trimmed. X2 three ply whiri (braids) have been threaded into the weaving to act as handles.

Complete piupiu waist garment made from undyed flax. Scraped flax sections create approximately seven square motifs with a horizontal band either side. Small tassels have been attached throughout the flax tags. The waistband is approximately 11cm wide with a 3 ply whiri (plait) at the top. As extensions to the whiri, twisted whenu (strands) make up waist ties. These extensions are finished with large tassels.

Complete kahu huruhuru, with tui, weka and pigeon feathers. Manufactured using whatu aho rua (two-pair weft-twining) technique with flax. There is a black strand along the left and right edges. The cloak has horizontal bands of alternating triangles, the lower five alternate between black and white triangles, with occasional triangles in green. The sixth band from the bottom is alternating green and white triangles, with the uppermost band once again alternating black and white. There is a band around the upper edge that has lost many of its feathers. There were two sets of ties along the upper edge, but they have been lost.

Fragment of woven harakeke (flax). Woven with undyed fine whenu (strands) using a takitahi (over one, under one) pattern. Tapiki (finish) along three side edges fits techniques used to complete whariki (mat) edges. Fine remnants of hukahuka (tags) woven from two ply muka (flax fiber) using the miro (rolling) technique visible towards the centre.

Unfinished paepaeroa cloak, in process of manufacture. The paepaeroa cloak is supported on two weaving sticks (turuturu). The starting decorative (taniko) border forms a side of the cloak (kahu) when worn. The body of the cloak (kaupapa) is twined row by row from left to right, and red wool is worked in to form a decorative finish for the neck edge on the right of the cloak. The warp (whenu) for the lower taniko border is attached at this stage and lies ready at the left to be worked when the rest of the garment is complete. The cloak is then turned back 90 degrees and the taniko border worked. The taniko on this paepaeroa cloak is 5cm wide, using dyed black wool, with a triangle pattern worked in white and red wool. The weaving sticks taper slightly at the bottom, and reduced at the top with knob to secure the paepaeroa to. Between the two weaving sticks the paepaeroa is secured to a metal rod.

Complete piupiu. Garment made from flax, scraped and unscraped, dyed (black, gold) and undyed (natural). Tags fall from various levels of kaupapa. Tags have scraped and unscraped sections forming a pattern of 4 horizontal bands across skirt. All unscraped sections are incised with cuts, some horizontal, some diagonal, some with criss-cross pattern. Kaupapa is approx. 230mm long with 17 weft rows (black) of single pair twining. Waistband has 4 weft rows (3 natural, 1 gold) of double pair twining. Top of waistband is 3 ply plait from warp extensions of kaupapa. Ties at each end are extensions of 3 ply plait. One has gold and natural flax fibre worked into it, and is knotted in several places.

Complete kahu huruhuru with kiwi and pheasant feathers. The top edge is a two ply twist, except one at each of the ends, where the warps become part of the fringe. There are two attachments for tying - 1 is a piece of bias binding, the other a tassel in red, black and cream wool. The cloak is of cotton, with two-ply interlocking weft. Along the left and right edges there is a twist of blue, red, black and white wool. The centre of the cloak is kiwi feathers with pheasant feathers as a 6-8cm wide border on the left, right and bottom edges. The border is in square blocks of colours; down the sides there are alternating squares of black then brown. Along the bottom there are alternating squares of black, brown, and white feathers.

Sample of muka (flax fiber) cloth. Decorated with mawhitiwhiti (woven cross stitch pattern work), decorative 3 looped whenu cast on, and a decorative border frill finish. Woven using whatu aho rua (two-pair weft-twining).