Journal of the RNZIH

The 2006 Banks Memorial Lecture: Cultural uses of New Zealand native plants Sue Scheele1 In this talk I examine those plants of that early period, but as the essential to human survival in climate changed it all but died out. Aotearoa – those of importance It was also inadequate for winter to Mäori before the arrival of warmth. By the time Cook arrived, Europeans, for food, clothing, there were only a few plants left, shelter, and medicine. Despite all with small pieces used for purposes the knowledge that has been lost, such as ear ornaments for people of there is a vast amount one could high status. explore on any of these subjects. I can imagine the relief of those So this is a selective overview, early settlers at fi nding the large once over lightly, but I hope enough Fig. 1 Phormium tenax ‘Maeneene’, a acreages of harakeke, common to enrich your appreciation of our harakeke selected for its weaving properties. in many places, especially as fantastic fl ora. Photo: Sue Scheele. they experimented and exploited And because this presentation is And there’s that word ‘fl ax’ being its properties. The very name a memorial to Joseph Banks, what used which has caused no end of harakeke comes from the proto- better place to start than with his confusion since. Our New Zealand Polynesian, fara meaning Pandanus remarks on Cook’s fi rst voyage in fl ax bears no relationship to the fl ax – the strappy leaved plant used for 1769. Banks kept a good journal used in Europe or elsewhere, the plaiting containers in Polynesia – of his observations of New Zealand perennial herb Linum, except that and keke meaning strong. Strong and its inhabitants. The Endeavour it also contains a similar looking pandanus, and so it was. With no landed at just a few coastal areas fi bre, extracted by vastly different pottery, Mäori plaited containers – Queen Charlotte Sound and processes and requiring different of all sorts from the leaves, using Admiralty Bay in the Marlborough manufacturing techniques. So it techniques already familiar to them. Sounds, and in the North Island, is better, I think, to use the term Snares, fi shing lines and nets, Poverty Bay, Tolaga Bay, Mercury ‘harakeke’. fl oor mats, and of course clothing, Bay on Coromandel Peninsula, Banks went on to enthuse about the were also manufactured from this Thames, and the Bay of Islands. virtues of harakeke – the strength marvellous plant. These were all places long settled of the fi bre used in fi shing lines At fi rst, these garments would have by Mäori. and cordage of all types; the silky, been plaited, not so comfortable Banks and his colleague Solander snowy white fi bres used in fi ne to wear, but then Mäori learnt to collected 360 plant species, though clothing; the leaves split and tied extract the fi bre from the leaves only a few get a specifi c mention. to make vast fi shing nets – and (Fig. 2) to make simple garments. And what grabbed his attention gave also the fi rst hint of the fl ax Over time, Mäori developed most was the plant that was a key to industry to come by refl ecting on techniques to produce cloaks of Mäori survival – New Zealand fl ax, what a great acquisition it would be high quality – they soaked and dried Phormium tenax, known to Mäori as to England. the extracted fi bre, rolled it into harakeke (Fig. 1). Banks had this We can’t overestimate the cords, hanked, and soaked it again, to say: importance of harakeke to Mäori and beat it to soften. “But of all the plants we have survival in Aotearoa. We know seen among these people that that the fi rst settlers, around 1200 which is the most excellent in its AD, came prepared for their new kind, and which realy [sic] excells life, and brought their most valued most if not all that are put to the plants with them, but most would Same uses in other Countries, not survive the cooler, more is the plant which serves them temperate climate. The main instead of Hemp and fl ax.” clothing plant was paper mulberry or aute (Broussonetia papyrifera), from which tapa cloth is made. It Fig. 2 Traditional haro method of stripping may have grown well enough to fi bre (muka) from harakeke leaves, using the start with, in the warmer conditions sharp edge of a shell. Photo: Sue Scheele. 1 Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln 7640; [email protected] 10 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2007, Vol. 10(2) Now, to make better cloaks, or There were, and are today, other fi ne kete (woven baskets; Fig. 3), important weaving plants. Next you need better harakeke, not just after harakeke is the Pandanus any old bush growing out the back relative, kiekie, Freycinetia door. Harakeke is variable in form baueriana, an epiphyte that and also in its weaving properties scrambles up trees and over – length, strength, sheen, ease of banks, cursed by hunters, but loved fi bre extraction, and colour when by weavers for its pliability and dried. Mäori selected bushes from whiteness (Fig. 5 A–B). It is often wild stands that had desirable A used for mats and fi ne kete. The characteristics, divided off fans, and reed kuta, Eleocharis sphacelata kept them in cultivation. Many of (Fig. 6), was and is also enjoyed these cultivars or varieties are still for its pliability and softness. The known and grown today, and are cabbage tree, tï köuka, Cordyline highly valued by weavers (Fig. 4). australis (Fig. 7), has a tougher leaf, not so much used today, but valued in early days for its strength and durability especially in seawater. The leaves were favoured for making anchor ropes and fi shing lines, and sandals (Fig. 8) and leggings for traversing the high country, home of the painfully prickly speargrasses (Aciphylla) and tümatakuru or matagouri (Discaria B toumatou). Tï köuka’s relative, Fig. 3 Examples of kete (woven baskets). töï, the mountain cabbage tree, Photo: Robert Lamberts. Fig. 5 A–B Kiekie (Freycinetia baueriana). Photos: Sue Scheele. Cordyline indivisa (Fig. 7), was a favourite for making rain capes. Fig. 4 Harvesting harakeke at Kaitaia. Photo: Sue Scheele. You’ll read more of the virtues of harakeke later, but I’d like to share Fig. 8 Sandals made from tï köuka (Cordyline australis). Photo: Sue Scheele. this quote from the missionary William Colenso, to whom we’re Fig. 6 Harvesting kuta (Eleocharis indebted for recording a great sphacelata). Photo: Warwick Harris. deal of the natural history of New Zealand: “On my arrival in this country… the Maoris would often inquire after the vegetable productions of England; and nothing astonished them more than to Fig. 9 Pïngao (Desmoschoenus spiralis). be told there was no harakeke Photo: Geoff Walls. growing there. On more than one occasion I have heard chiefs The golden sand-binding sedge, say, ‘How is it possible to live pïngao, Desmoschoenus spiralis there without it?’ and ‘I would not (Fig. 9), was and is valued for its dwell in such a land as that.’ ” toughness and decorative features. William Colenso 1892. Vestiges: It was once common on the dunes Reminiscences: Memorabilia of before the mass planting of marram works, deeds and sayings of the grass (Ammophila arenaria) but now joins the list of those plants in ancient Maoris. Transactions of Fig. 7 Tï köuka, cabbage tree (Cordyline the New Zealand Institute 24: p. australis), growing in the foreground; töï, the gradual decline. 464. mountain cabbage tree (Cordyline indivisa) in the background. Photo: Geoff Walls. New Zealand Garden Journal, 2007, Vol. 10(2) 11 Pïngao wasn’t always a dune to ensure their survival from year (and could be stored then), soaked, dweller. She once lived among the to year, gardening with raised dried again, then roasted when seaweed children in the realm of the gravel beds and wooden or stone required and beaten to reveal the Tangaroa, guardian of the sea. But walls to retain heat, and developing pulp. Areas where the fernroot one day she saw käkaho (fl ower- underground storage chambers to grew best, and provided the largest stalks of the toetoe, Cortaderia) overwinter the tubers in a warm, roots, were jealously protected. As dancing on the dunes and fell in humid, environment. But even in with harakeke, there were many love with this elegant creature. She the warmer northern regions, crops names to describe the different begged Tangaroa to be able to weren’t always reliable. And in the qualities of fernroot, attesting to its leave the watery realm. Tangaroa South Island, even the growing of vital importance. Mostly, the roots was very reluctant but allowed her kümara was very restricted. were sucked and chewed, with to go. Käkaho however was only the fi bres spat out. Sometimes interested in his own shape and the meal was extracted from form and ignored poor pïngao. the fi bres, rolled into cakes, and Unable to make it back to the sea, roasted. They could be kept this pïngao was left stranded on the way and were often used as a food dunes, showered occasionally with for travellers. Banks described spray by Tangaroa. Eventually the the taste as having a “sweetish children of Papatuanuku intervened. clammyness”. We can note here They harvested pïngao and käkaho that the shoots and raw roots are and united them in tukutuku panels known to be carcinogenic, but the on the walls of meeting houses. Fig. 11 Heritage kümara cultivars. act of roasting in embers eliminates Photo: Graham Harris.

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