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Māori Traditional Textiles
Māori traditional textiles are the indigenous textiles of the Māori people of New Zealand. The organisation Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national Māori weavers' collective, aims to preserve and foster the skills of making and using these materials. Textiles made from locally sourced materials were developed by Māori in New Zealand after migration from Polynesia as the plants used in the Pacific islands did not grow well in the New Zealand climate. In traditional Māori weaving of garments the main fibre is called muka and is made from harakeke. The Māori language terms for different types of weaving are commonly named as raranga, whatu and whiri. Raranga is a plaiting technique used for making baskets and mats; whatu is a pre-European finger weft twining weaving method used to make cloaks; and whiri is braiding to make cord. Most people weaving traditional Māori textiles were and are women. Traditionally, to become expert a young woman was initiated into Te Whare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miss Taipa Plaiting Tieke (cropped)
Miss (pronounced ) is an English language honorific typically used for a girl, for an unmarried woman (when not using another title such as "Doctor" or "Dame"), or for a married woman retaining her maiden name. Originating in the 17th century, it is a contraction of ''mistress''. Its counterparts are Mrs., used for a married women who has taken her husband's name, and Ms., which can be used for married or unmarried women. The plural ''Misses'' may be used, such as in ''The Misses Doe''. The traditional French "Mademoiselle" (abbreviation "Mlle") may also be used as the plural in English language conversation or correspondence. In Australian, British, and Irish schools the term 'miss' is often used by pupils in addressing any female teacher. Use alone as a form of address ''Miss'' is an honorific for addressing a woman who is not married, and is known by her maiden name. It is a shortened form of ''mistress'', and departed from ''misses/missus'' which became used to signify mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haka
Haka (; plural ''haka'', in both Māori and English) are a variety of ceremonial performance art in Māori culture. It is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted or chanted accompaniment. Haka are performed to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions, or funerals. Haka have been traditionally performed by both men and women and for a variety of social functions within Māori culture. Kapa haka groups are common in schools. The main Māori performing arts competition, Te Matatini, takes place every two years. New Zealand sports teams' practice of performing a haka before their international matches has made haka more widely known around the world. This tradition began with the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team tour and has been carried on by the New Zealand rugby union team (known as the All Blacks) since 1905. Although popularly associated with the traditional battl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhopalostylis Sapida
''Rhopalostylis sapida'', commonly known as nīkau ( mi, nīkau), is a palm tree endemic to New Zealand, and the only palm native to mainland New Zealand. Etymology is a Māori word; in the closely related Eastern Polynesian languages of the tropical Pacific, it refers to the fronds or the midrib of the coconut palm. Distribution The nīkau palm is the only palm species endemic to mainland New Zealand. Its natural range is coastal and lowland forest on the North Island, and on the South Island as far south as Okarito (43°20′S) in the west and Banks Peninsula (43°5′S) in the east. It also occurs on Chatham Island and Pitt Island/Rangiauria to the south-east of New Zealand, where it is the world's southernmost palm at 44° 18'S latitude.Esler, A. E. 'The Nikau Palm', ''New Zealand's Nature Heritage'', Vol.2 Part 19 p.532, 1974 Nīkau grow up to 15 m tall, with a stout, green trunk which bears grey-green leaf scars. The trunk is topped by a smooth, bulging crownsha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiekie (plant)
Kiekie (''Freycinetia banksii'') is a densely branched, brittle, woody climber native to New Zealand. It is a member of the screwpalm family Pandanaceae. Kiekie has numerous cane-like stems up to 40 mm in diameter, which freely produce aerial roots. It climbs tree trunks, or forms dense tangles on the forest floor. Its stems and leaves are a dominant feature in many areas of New Zealand forest, the stems eventually reaching up to 30 m long. The leaves are long and slender, 60–90 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad. Distribution Kiekie is found in forests throughout the North Island. In the South Island, kiekie is more common in higher rainfall areas, reaching its southern limit near the Clarence river in the east and in Fiordland in the west. Classification In 1973, B.C. Stone argued that ''F. banksii'' should be regarded as a subspecies of ''F. baueriana'' of Norfolk Island (Stone 1973). Subsequent to this, de Lange et al. (2005:591-592), countered Stone's arguments an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pīngao
''Ficinia spiralis'' (pīngao, pīkao, or golden sand sedge) is a coastal sedge endemic to New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands). Originally widespread, it has suffered severely from competition with introduced marram grass and animal grazing and now has only a patchy distribution. Description Pīngao is a stout, grass-like plant, 30–90 cm tall, from the sedge family, found on active sand dunes. It is found only in New Zealand and is easily distinguished from other dune species such as spinifex or marram grass. Seen from a distance, pīngao patches have a distinctive orange hue. Most plants produce long, prostrate, tough rope-like stolons that creep along the sand surface until buried by shifting sand, leaving just the upper portion of leaves exposed. Some southern South Island populations produce dense tussock-like plants without extensive stolons. Numerous tough, roughly textured leaves are borne in dense tufts on well-spaced, short, upright stems (tillers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordyline Indivisa
''Cordyline indivisa'' is a monocot tree endemic to New Zealand, where it is called mountain cabbage tree or bush flax. It is also known as the broad-leaved cabbage tree, and in the Māori language as . Distribution In the North Island ''Cordyline indivisa'' occurs from south of Kohukohunui in the Hunua Ranges and Te Moehau (Coromandel Peninsula) but becomes common only south of Raukumara Ranges and the central Volcanic Plateau. In the South Island it is widespread and common along the north and western portions of the island, but occurs more locally in the drier eastern regions. Description ''C. indivisa'' is very distinctive. The species can be distinguished from all other '' Cordyline'' species by its very broad blue-grey leaves, and its smaller, tightly compacted inflorescence which is produced from beneath the foliage. It forms a stout tree up to tall, with a trunk from in diameter. The stem is usually unbranched, or has very few branches. The leaves are long, and from w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordyline Australis
''Cordyline australis'', commonly known as the cabbage tree, tī kōuka or cabbage-palm, is a widely branched monocot tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to tall with a stout trunk and sword-like leaves, which are clustered at the tips of the branches and can be up to long. With its tall, straight trunk and dense, rounded heads, it is a characteristic feature of the New Zealand landscape. Its fruit is a favourite food source for the kererū and other native birds. It is common over a wide latitudinal range from the far north of the North Island at 34° 25′S to the south of the South Island at 46° 30′S. Absent from much of Fiordland, it was probably introduced by Māori to the Chatham Islands at 44° 00′S and to Stewart Island / Rakiura at 46° 50′S. It grows in a broad range of habitats, including forest margins, river banks and open places, and is abundant near swamps. The largest known tree with a single trunk is growing at Pakawau, Golden Bay / Mohua. It is es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phormium Colensoi
''Phormium'' is a genus of two plant species in the family Asphodelaceae. One species is endemic to New Zealand and the other is native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. The two species are widely known in New Zealand as flax or their Māori names ''wharariki'' and ''harakeke'' respectively'','' and elsewhere as New Zealand flax or flax lily, but they are not closely related to the Northern Hemisphere's flax (''Linum usitatissimum''), which is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and has been used by humans since 30,000 B.C. Taxonomy Monocot classification has undergone significant revision in the past decade, and recent classification systems (including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) have found ''Phormium'' to be closely related to daylilies ('' Hemerocallis''), placing it in family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. ''Phormium'' formerly belonged to the family Agavaceae and many classification systems still place it there. It incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flax In New Zealand
New Zealand flax describes the common New Zealand perennial plants ''Phormium tenax'' and '' Phormium colensoi'', known by the Māori names ''harakeke'' and ''wharariki'' respectively. Although given the common name 'flax' they are quite distinct from the Northern Hemisphere plant known as flax (''Linum usitatissimum''). ''P. tenax'' occurs naturally in New Zealand and Norfolk Island, while ''P. colensoi'' is endemic to New Zealand. They have played an important part in the cultural and economic history of New Zealand for both the Māori people and the later European settlers. Both species and their cultivars have now been widely distributed to temperate regions of the world as ornamental garden plants – and to lesser extent for fibre production. __TOC__ Traditional Māori uses Textiles Although the Māori made textiles from a number of other plants, including tī kōuka, tōī, pingao, kiekie, toetoe and the paper mulberry, the use of harakeke and wharariki was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term ''Milky Way'' is a translation of the Latin ', from the Greek ('), meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated D25 isophotal diameter of , but only about 1,000 light years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulge) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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