Picking Harakeke (Flax)

Last week my class and I had the privilege to experience the kaupapa (protocols) of collecting harakeke (flax). Flax is a taonga to all Maori people because they used flax for all sorts of things like for example clothing, baskets and many more things. We all walked down to Omaru Creek and talked about the rules.

Some rules were to not pick flax at night and to not pick them when it's raining. One of the most important rules was to not cut the Pepi (baby), Matua (father) and the Whaea (mother) because if you do then the whole bush will die. There were some other rules we were not to do with it

After discussing the rules we went off and picked our flax. My friend Jorja and I didn't really get to pick flax but we did get to capture everyone participating in this event. It was amazing seeing everyone co-operating together as a team. It was a short time down at Omaru Creek.

We came back to school with our flax in our hands and our class sat down quietly ready to start weaving. We were trying to weave a putiputi (flower). Some people got through it but some struggled. This was a great experience.

Even though I didn't get to do all of these things but I still had fun seeing people make the putiputi. At the same time is was funny. Anyway this day was AWESOME!!