Flax Weaving in New Zealand

摘要

The Maori have been weaving with harakeke, which we know as New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax), since they migrated from the Pacific Islands around 900 years ago. They discovered that the many varieties of flax could be used in the same way that they had used the bark of the paper mulberry plant (Broussonetia papyrifera) in the islands. This was fortunate since the paper mulberry plant could only be cultivated successfully in the warmer climate of northern North Island. New Zealand Flax, in case you are in any doubt, is a species from a completely different plant family to that of Common Flax (Linum usitatissimum) and different again to the paper mulberry.