Korowai (cloak)

A korowai is a style of prestigious cloak which has a plain muka (flax fibre) kaupapa (main body of the cloak). It is made of fine, hand processed New Zealand harakeke (flax: Phormium tenax) The korowai is an elegant drape with hukahuka (tassels) attached, which were made by plying dyed black muka.

Details
The upper edge of this korowai was enhanced with a collar of hukahuka, which is known as the kurupatu. A lesser fringe has been worked across the remu (bottom) of the cloak. Hukahuka were made by plying strands of dressed muka into a single cord and carefully attached to the kaupapa. The contrast between the dark hukuhuku and pale kaupapa is particularly striking.

Korowai history
At the time of Captain Cook's visits to New Zealand in 1770, 1773, and 1776, korowai do not appear in drawings made by his official artists. Korowai were perhaps a later innovation in weaving as, by 1844, George French Angas was rendering korowai with their black dyed hukahuka against the pale kaupapa in his drawings. By that time they were a very popular style of cloak. The hukahuka on some cloaks were as long as thirty centimetres and would have moved gently with the wearer, creating an appealing effect.

Acquisition
This korowai is part of the Bollons Collection at Te Papa, although exactly how Captain Bollons came to receive it is not known. It may have been a gift from local Māori through his wife's relations. Bollons was a keen naturalist, collecting eggs for other museums, and was very interested in Māori culture. His extensive Māori fish hook collection also resides in Te Papa, gifted by his wife in 1931.

The Bollons Collection
John Peter Bollons was born at Bethnal Green, London, England, on 10 November 1862. At 14 he began his long sea career by shipping out aboard a barquentine bound for the West Indies.

Bollons made landfall in New Zealand the hard way when the barque England's Glory ran ashore near the entrance to Bluff Harbour on 7 November 1881. The kindness of a Pākehā whaler and his Māori wife endeared the Māori people and the town in which he settled to the young seafarer. For the next decade he served aboard a variety of home trade, inter-colonial, and coastal vessels, working his way up through the grades. He gained his master's certificate in 1892 and from 1893 was employed on the steamers of the Marine Department.

On 28 November 1896 John Bollons married Lilian Rose Hunter, the daughter of a retired master mariner, John Hunter.

It was on the Marine Department steamers that Bollons was able to pursue his interests in natural history and Māori culture. He always welcomed scientists and scholars aboard his ship and was himself a keen and observant naturalist, carrying a small dredging plant with him for collecting specimens. He spoke and wrote Māori fluently, researched Māori folklore and cultural practices, and made a special study of Māori fishing equipment. His collection of artefacts remains one of the more significant at Te Papa.

John Bollons died unexpectedly in Wellington on 18 September 1929. He was survived by his wife, Lilian, and by four daughters and three sons. Bollons was buried at Bluff, hometown of his wife and whose inhabitants had given him refuge fifty years earlier.