FLAX

Te Ao Hou, Spring 1952, Page 41

FLAX by S. G. Mead New Zealand flax, scientifically known as Phormium Tenax, and well known to the Maori as harakeke, was the most useful plant that our ancestors found here, in this pleasant ‘land of the long white cloud.’ Unlike most other plants, every part of it was used for some definite purpose. From the fibres of the leaves, mats and baskets were plaited and garments woven; the gum and rhizome were utilised in medicines; the flowers provided nectar which even young maidens enjoyed; the pollen, it is said, was used as face powder by the young women, and even the stalks had a useful purpose. Could another plant be so useful? The tui relishes its sweet, delicious nectar and the Maori pioneer could not find a better substitute for the tapa cloth from his far distant tropical home. The climatic conditions in this land were not kind to the paper mulberry tree, of whose bark clothing is made in Central Polynesia. The Maoris tried hard to propagate it, but it would not flourish. Those plants which did grow were stunted, and so few that they were discarded altogether. Flax took its place. Coconut and pandanus leaves from which baskets and mats were made, could not be found in this land by the pioneer. Flax plants, however, solved his plaiting problems. He found, too, that in plaiting flax the old techniques of Hawaiki could be used with very few alterations. As a child teaches himself to master the hammer, so did the old Maori familiarise himself with the limitations and possibilities of this new material. In making baskets and mats, however, he had one great advantage; he already knew how to plait. All he had to do was to adapt the old technique to the new material. In other aspects of flax crafts, however, the Maori weaver had to invent, and in due course the inventions became widely known and practised throughout New Zealand. This article and the ones that follow will give some insight into flax crafts. Before these crafts are described, however, I intend to deal with the flax plant itself; anyone interested in the crafts must first have a thorough knowledge of the plant.