Korowai (cloak)

This korowai (cloak with tassel adornment) is made from muka (flax fibre) and has a decorative coloured wool border. Māori often incorporated modern materials like wool into traditional woven garments for extra colour, decoration, or warmth. This korowai has been well worn: many of the hukahuka (tassels) are missing.

Muka
Muka is derived from the sword shaped leaves of the flax plant (Phormium tenax), an evergreen found mainly in swampy or low lying areas around New Zealand. It was made by stripping the outer layer of flax with a shell (often a mussel shell). The fibre was then washed and pounded with a muka patu (blunt stone or wood club) to leave a fibrous thread that was silky and soft to touch. The thread was then bound together into a sturdy chord and sometimes dyed before weaving.

Pre-European colour
Before the arrival of European settlers and modern materials such as wool, colours were sourced from indigenous materials. Paru (mud high in iron salts) provided black, raurēkau (shrub: Brachyglottis repanda) bark made yellow, and tānekaha (celery pine: Phyllocladus trichomanoides) bark made tan. The colour was set by rolling the dyed muka in alum (potash).