Dance skirt

This is a skirt worn as part of a dance costume.

Construction

The skirt consists of a wide plaited waistband that runs into three layered rows of green, red, yellow and purple dyed strips of hibiscus bast. In several sections, longer and wider green and red dyed leaf strips are attached to the waist band and break up the rows of the shorter fibres.

Significance

This skirt is part of a collection associated with Frank Corner, a New Zealand diplomat who worked in London as Deputy High Commissioner between 1952 and 1958, and later in the Pacific Islands.In 1961, Corner became New Zealand's Ambassador to the United Nations. He chaired the Trusteeship Council for two years, and served on the United Nations Security Council. Corner was the leading proponent of decolonisation of Pacific territories under New Zealand control, and provided the leading intellectual arguments in favour of decolonisation of Tokelau, the Cook Islands, Niue and Western Samoa.

Acquisition History

This dance skirt is part of a collection donated to Te Papa by Victoria Corner in 2018.