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

Making a hīnaki, early 1920s

Making a hīnaki, early 1920s

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. 

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/2-037930-F
Photograph by James Ingram McDonald

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page:

Kahutoi Te Kanawa, 'Māori weaving and tukutuku – te raranga me te whatu - Whāriki, raranga and whiri', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/43494/making-a-hinaki-early-1920s (accessed 1 May 2024)

Story by Kahutoi Te Kanawa, published 22 Oct 2014