MĀORI DAYS / SIDELIGHTS ON NATIVE LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Rights Information
Year
1934
Reference
F43818
Media type
Moving image
Ask about this item

Ask to use material, get more information or tell us about an item

Rights Information
Year
1934
Reference
F43818
Media type
Moving image
Place of production
New Zealand/Aotearoa
Categories
Actuality
Duration
0:14:00
Production company
NZ Dominion Reviews
Taonga Māori Collection
Yes

“When New Zealand was discovered by Europeans in 1642, the land was inhabited by a vigorous and warlike Polynesian people. These were the Maori, who had voyaged to New Zealand across the wide Pacific Ocean, and their great migration is still represented by this posture-dance known as the Canoe Poi”. Maori women perform the waka poi.

“The New Zealand flax, with its almost unbreakable fibre, supplied the old-time Maori with abundant material for clothing, ropes and countless other necessaries”. Maori woman cuts harakeke.

“Having no metal tools, the women harvested the ten-foot flax leaves with sharp-edged shells”. Maori woman cuts harakeke with shell, group of women return through gates of Maori village with harakeke strapped to their backs.

“The Maori suitcase is a basket of plaited strips of flax leaf, which weighs practically nothing and is almost everlasting.” Maori women weave kete.

“Making a Whariki, or Maori carpet, calls for the use of more than two hands, so the “toe-hold” is employed, the foot serving as a third hand.” Maori women weave whariki. “In the older days, Maori etiquette required that a Whariki be spread for visitors to sit upon, just as we place chairs for our guests”. Two Maori women arrive and greet two other women in front of whare. “The greeting or “hongi’ consists of clasping hands and pressing noses together, for kissing has never been a Maori custom.” Whariki are brought out and put on the ground for the two visiting women to sit on. Close up view of weaving.

“Making a Korowai, or cloak, of finely dressed flax fibre ornamented with the feathers of the wingless Kiwi and other New Zealand birds.” Two Maori women make feather korowai. “Kiwi feathers are extremely soft and fine and each one must be separately and securely tied into the fibre.” Close up views of women making korowai.

“A good Korowai takes about two years to make, but the artist’s patient skill produces a garment warm, waterproof and quaintly beautiful”. Woman places finished korowai around her shoulders, while second woman looks on.

“Flax leaf is also used for the Piu-piu, or dancing skirt, worn when performing the posture-dance called the Poi.” Women sitting in circle making piu-piu. “Strips of leaf are cut partly through at regular intervals, and the fibre is scraped bare in alternate sections and at the ends of the strips”. Close up of woman’s hands working on fibre.

“The bundles of strips are hung in a sunny place to bleach and curl before being dyed.” Woman hangs up bundles of fibre. “Leaves and bark of trees and one special kind of black mud, provided most of the Maori dyes”. Woman stand in river gathering special mud. Women gather leaves on side of river, and place in kete.

“The appliances of the Maori dye-works are very simple often being merely some pits in the ground, in one of which is a tanning solution of bark and leaves.” Group of women placing fibre in holes in ground. “The dye affects only the scraped parts, leaving he rest a natural creamy colour, so that the strips now resemble strings of beads”. Group of women retrieve fibre from hole in ground. “After being rinsed in water the strips are spread out to dry and then the ends are plaited into a waistband.” Women lay fibres out onto ground, then plait them into piu-piu.

“Now let us see the completed garments in use for a Poi performance”. Group of women perform poi.

“When the Maoris first saw New Zealand’s thermal wonders at Rotorua, they regarded the spouting geysers, the hot earth and the pools of boiling mud as being the work of their gods. Women walk in thermal landscape. “However they quickly saw the useful possibilities of the boiling springs and warm lakes, and used them for washing and cooking, and for bathing’. Group of women wash clothes in thermal water, two young children play.

“Shellfish always played a big part in the Maori menu, and the shells were used for scraping and cutting up the Kūmara or sweet potatoes.” Group of women scrape and peel kūmara. “In the thermal regions, the Kumaras can be cooked by being placed in a boiling pool for about twenty minutes.” Group of Maori women place kūmara in hot water in bags on end of string.

“Saturday night presents no problems at Rotorua, for here Dame Nature’s hot baths are always ready.” Women swim in hot pool. “New Zealand’s Maori folk often beguile the evening hours with song”. Group of Maori sitting outdoors, sunset. NZ Govt Publicity badge.

F14509 refers as a segment of this fuller item, and F43819 refers to a sound version minus intertitles.