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History
Captain Cook’s ‘Father-and-son’ botany team of George and Johann Forster gave flax its scientific name: Phormium Tenax : Phormium after the Greek for basket, and Tenax, Latin for strong. The Maori word ‘hara’ in Harakeke is derived from Polynesian names for pandanus (eg ‘ara’ in Cook Island Maori) and ‘keke’ meaning strong or stubborn.
Historical Applications
In pre-European times, the Maori relied greatly on the flax plant for their everyday needs. It was scraped by hand using seashells to remove the fibre or Muka. The Muka was then used to make korowai (cloaks), whakatipu (rain capes), tatua (belts) and rope. Harakeke was transformed into platters to eat from, buckets to carry soil and sand for cultivating gardens and building fortifications, lines and nets for fishing, mats to sleep on and to cover floors, lashings for canoes and dwellings, snares to trap birds, sails for canoes, and rattles for babies and sandals, to name a few.
By 1830, flax had become a major export commodity and was worth about ₤26.000 per annum. This was an exclusively Maori enterprise, as the flax was grown by local tribes, processed by them (scraped to release its Muka), and shipped off to Sydney where it was made into rope. The overseas demand for flax eventually subsided, but linen was still being made from flax well into the 1930s.
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Image courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library
Image courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library
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