The Source

This is where I like to harvest harakeke.  It is near here that I have been able to find harakeke that yields  wonderful muka. It is also near where I grew up.

My Great Great Grandfather was involved in the flax milling industry in Foxton from the 1890’s.  A quote from a story about him on ‘Kete Horowhenua‘ says:
“Abraham never tired of emphasising the fact that fibre production was the oldest industry in New Zealand, having been started by the Maori people.”

I have been interested in traditional weaving for a long time.  I had bought every book I could find on the subject and tried to teach myself from the books.
I had attended exhibitions, watched weavers at work and marveled at the beautiful taonga their weaving skills produced.
I sent hours watching at one special demonstration at Te Papa.  I was fascinated by the beautiful hands and work of one of the weavers who was weaving a Kahu Kiwi.  She showed me how she prepared the kiwi feathers.  She explained that because the kiwi feathers were so fine that she used a little dab of soap to bind three feathers together and would make many hundreds of these little bundles before she began working on the cloak. I remember her saying that feathers were usually woven in so that they sat neatly and flat against the body of the cloak but with kiwi she would weave them with the natural curve of the feather outward so that you get a wonderful sense of movement as the Kahu Kiwi is worn.
The other lasting impression I have of this beautiful woman is one of gentleness, calm and patience.  I didn’t know her name until several years down the track, after I began to learn weaving with a real live tutor instead of out of a book.
I then discovered just how lucky I had been to have had that encounter and that her name was Erenora Puketapu Hetet.
My Teacher was her Daughter Veranoa Hetet.

I have noted how much of an inspiration Veranoa has been in a blog I started last year during November when I decided to do the challenge of posting a blog entry for each day of the month.  I surprised myself by keeping up with this endeavour and managed to post something everyday (well, almost everyday – I missed just one day).

I called the blog ‘Whatu – Raranga’