Pōhā are traditional

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

bags made from southern bull kelp, which are used to carry and store food and fresh water, to propagate live

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

, and to make clothing and equipment for sports. Pōhā are especially associated with

Ngāi Tahu Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Poi ...

, who have legally recognised rights for harvesting source species of kelp.

Construction

Blades from southern bull kelp (rimurapa in

) species such as ''

Durvillaea antarctica ''Durvillaea antarctica'', also known as ' and ', is a large, robust species of southern bull kelp found on the coasts of Chile, southern New Zealand, and Macquarie Island.Smith, J.M.B. and Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1998). Kelp-plucking: coastal eros ...

'' and '' D. poha'' (named after the pōhā) were used to construct the bags. The kelp blades have a 'honeycomb' structure,Maggy Wassilieff
Seaweed - Bull kelp’s honeycombed structure
''Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand'', Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Updated 2 March 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2010. which allows them to be split open, hollowed out (pōhā hau) and inflated into containers. Inflated blades are hung out to dry and then deflated and rolled up for transport.

Tōtara ''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane a ...

bark can be used to cover and protect the bags.

Uses

Transport

Pōhā are used to transport food, fresh water, to enclose food within an oven, and to transport and propagate live seafood such as

(including

toheroa ''Paphies ventricosa'', or toheroa (a Māori word meaning "long tongue"), is a large bivalve mollusc of the family Mesodesmatidae, endemic to New Zealand. Distribution It is found in both the North and South Islands, but the main habitat is ...

sea stars Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...

and

pāua Pāua is the Māori name given to three New Zealand species of large edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs which belong to the family Haliotidae (in which there is only one genus, ''Haliotis''), known in the United States and Austral ...

in a process referred to as whakawhiti kaimoana. Pōhā were often used to carry and store muttonbird (tītī) chicks. Pōhā form an airtight seal and food can be safely stored inside them for up to two or three years.

Clothing and sport

Members of

used inflated pōhā to protect their bodies (like a wetsuit) while foraging for seafood, and stories by

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

indicate that pōhā were used for

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

in a sport called kauai or kaukau.

References

External links

A Seaweed Pantry - Tales from Te Papa episode 100, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (YouTube video)Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Story: Te Māori i te ohanga – Māori in the economy: Pōhā containersMāoritube Pōhā (Bull Kelp Bags) – Ngāi Tahu Mahinga KaiPōhā - Ngāi Tahu Mahinga Kai (direct link to video on YouTube)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pōhā Polynesian culture Māori culture