Story: Māori weaving and tukutuku – te raranga me te whatu

Paratene Ngata (left), of Waiōmatatini on the East Coast, makes a hīnaki (eel trap), with a framework of mānuka poles enclosed by hoops of supplejack bound with woven flax. At right sits anthropologist Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), recording the process in a notebook. In 1926 the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand published a detailed article by Buck titled 'The Maori craft of netting', describing the making and use of nets and traps such as this.