Pake style of cloak

Learn about the cloaks that Maori developed to survive New Zealand’s cold climate - pake, or rain capes.

Surviving New Zealand’s climate

After arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand, Maori needed clothing to protect themselves from the cold, and to use as shelter when travelling and sleeping outside.

They developed pake (rain capes) - practical, everyday garments made by attaching hundreds of leaf strips, called hukahuka, to a woven foundation. The hukahuka channelled off the rain.

Early European observations

Joseph Banks (1743-1820), botanist on British explorer James Cook’s first Pacific voyage (1768-71), remarked on the effectiveness of these capes, which looked ‘not a little [like] a thatched house’.

‘These dresses ... are well adapted for their convenience, as they [Maori] often sleep in the open air, and live some time without the least shelter, even from rain ... every strip of leaf becomes ... a kind of gutter, which serves to conduct the rain down.’

Types of rain cape and materials

Pake took various forms, depending on the materials and techniques used. The forms included hieke, para kiekie, whakatipu, and tatara.

Maori often made rain capes from harakeke (New Zealand flax), the leaves of which were slightly softened to lie flat. But they learned to use other plants as well, including ti kouka (cabbage tree), pingao (golden sand sedge), and neinei (spiderwood). Their survival depended on exploiting all available resources.

Making pake

Weavers constructed pake from the base up, much like a thatched roof.

To weave the flax-fibre foundation, they adapted whatu - a twining technique originally used to make fishing nets and traps. As they wove, they worked in the hundreds of hukahuka. They scraped a small section in the centre of each to be able to fold it and attach it to the cloak.

When the garment was long enough, they twisted the whenu (vertical threads, or warp) at the neck to form a strong, rope-like finish. For some cloaks, they trimmed the overlying rows of hukahuka to form tiers.

Rain cape revival

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in making rain capes. Contemporary weavers have created many beautiful and practical pake, including for paddlers of modern ceremonial canoes.