- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Cloak. Made of flax. Decorated with kiwi feathers.
- Long description
- Kahu kiwi, kiwi feather cloak. Kaupapa (body of cloak) woven from un-dyed muka (processed New Zealand flax/Phormium Tenax). Kiwi feathers cover the entire surface of one side. There is a band of darker kiwi feathers at neck edge. Dark red wool incorporated at either side in the selvedge. [ROH 31/01/2012]
- Geographical reference
- Cultural groups
- Māori
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1941
- Date collected
- By 1941
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1941
- Materials and processes
- Material Flax (NZ) Plant, Material Bird Feather, Material Wool Yarn Animal, Process Twined Woven, Process Twisted, Process Finger Woven, Process Dyed
- Dimensions
- Length: max 920 mm, Width: max 1300 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1941.8.295
- Research and responses
This Kahu was viewed by Hokimate Harwood for her doctoral thesis 'Te Reo o Te Kākahu: an ethno-ornithological chronicle of the history and language of Māori feather cloaks' (2022). It is one of 17 feather cloaks in the PRM featured in the international register of Māori feather cloaks produced for her thesis. In this she identifies the cloak as a Kahu Kiwi and gives the following description:
'Flax kiwi feather cloak with a band of darker brown kiwi feathers along the top of cloak and red wool on edges. W 130cm x H 92cm (max)' [See Researchers RDF file]
1941.8.295
Cloak. Made of flax. Decorated with kiwi feathers.
1941.8.295
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.