Ta'ovala (waist mat)

This unfinished waist ornament was probably in the process of being made when it was collected more than 200 years ago. Waist ornaments and overskirts of various kinds are an important element of Tongan dress. In New Zealand, they are a distinctive mark of Tongan identity.

Materials and decoration techniques
The unfinished garment is made of fine fibres from the inner part of hibiscus bark. It was being worked on from the bottom up: the tabs would have pointed downwards, and the loose fibres would have been used to form the waistband. The plaiting is so complex that Tongan weavers today are unable to duplicate it.

Significance
The skirt is a significant example of Tongan weaving, which is no longer practiced. It was probably collected during Captain James Cook's first visit to Tonga in 1773, on his second voyage to the Pacific. It is part of a collection that may conceivably have been given to King George III by Cook himself. It once belonged to Queen Victoria. Edward VII gave it to the Imperial Institute (now the Royal Commonwealth Institute), who gifted it to the Dominion Museum in 1955.