Weaving Cloaks and Whakataukī: A Memoir

Authors

  • Joan Metge Independent researcher; Kōtare Trust

Keywords:

Māori weaving, cloaks, harakeke, tāniko, Māori proverbs and sayings (whakataukī), New Zealand anthropology

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.

Author Biography

Joan Metge, Independent researcher; Kōtare Trust

Joan Metge was awarded Dame Commander of the British Empire (D.B.E.) in 1987 for services to anthropology. Her contributions were further recognised in 1997 by award of the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s inaugural Te Rangi Hiroa Medal; in 2006 they further created the Metge Medal for “excellence and building relationships in the social science research community”. Her life’s work on cross-cultural awareness has also been internationally recognised by the Asia-Pacific Mediation Forum Peace Prize in 2006. Dame Joan decided she wanted to be an anthropologist early in life but found the subject was not yet taught in Aotearoa New Zealand universities. This saw her go offshore to train as a social anthropologist under Raymond Firth at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she completed her PhD in 1958. Her first book, A New Maori Migration (1964), drew from her doctoral studies, tracing the shift from rural communities to urban Auckland. Nine other books followed, including Talking Past Each Other!? Problems of Cross Cultural Communication! (1978, with Patricia Kinloch), In and Out of Touch: Whakamaa in Cross Cultural Context (1986), New Growth from Old: The Whānau in the Modern World (1995) and Tauira: Māori Methods of Learning and Teaching (2015). She once likened the relationships of contemporary New Zealand society to “a rope [of] many strands, which when woven or working together create a strong nation”.

Front cover image

Downloads

Published

2022-07-11

Issue

Vol. 131 No. 1 (2022): March 2022

Section

Articles

License

Copyright © 2024 by the Polynesian Society (Inc.)

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Inquiries should be made to:

Dr Marcia Leenen-Young, Editor
The Polynesian Society
c/o School of Māori and Pacific Studies
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland
New Zealand

email: m.leenen@auckland.ac.nz