Hira's Weaving Journey

According to Hauraki peoples,

weaving and plaiting came from a

fairy (patupaiarehe) woman,

Hinerehia, who married a human

man called Karangaroa, a rangatira

of the Maruiwi people from Motuihe

Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

They met

when Hinerehia was gathering

rehia, an edible seaweed. They

married and had children.

Hinerehia was an expert in

preparing and dyeing flax fibre,

weaving garments and plaiting

baskets and mats. She worked only

at night and on foggy days. At dawn

she would put away her unfinished

work, hiding it from the sunlight.

This was the custom of the fairy

people, as the sun would undo

weaving and cause them to lose

their skills.

The women of Motuihe were

anxious to learn Hinerehia’s skills

but could not do so in the darkness.

A tohunga agreed to confuse

Hinerehia’s senses and keep her

working after the sun rose.

Hinerehia continued to work while

the women hiding nearby learnt her

secrets.

When she grew tired and laid her

work aside, she realised she had

been deceived. She sang a sad

farewell to the husband and

children she would not see again,

and then a cloud came down and

carried her off to her old home in

the Moehau Range.

Sometimes at night, or when there

is dense fog, people hear

Hinerehia’s lament coming from the

roof of their house. It is an omen of

death.

This is how the women of Hauraki

obtained their knowledge of textile

arts and why weaving, plaiting and

the preparation of fibres takes place

only during the day, with women

covering their unfinished work

before nightfall. When these skills

were known only to the fairies, they

belonged with the darkness.

If people are not careful now, this

knowledge may return to darkness

and the fairies, and be lost to

humans. Trouble came to Hinerehia

when she did weaving in the

daytime. Perhaps human women

belonging to this world and to the

daylight would get into trouble if

they wove at night. That is why a

young woman who is careless

about such matters might be

cautioned, “Remember how