Te Papa As a result of Hokimate Harwood's research in 2007/08, photos taken using a microscope now form the basis of an image database held by Te Papa which enables accurate identification of which species a particular feather has come from. Please see our
Spring 2007 and
Autumn 2008 newsletters for more information on this research.
Feather cloak identifications also revealed that individual weavers used ways of identifying their cloaks - some by weaving a single feather of a particular species into a hidden section of the cloak. Now that we now have a better idea of what and how birds were used to make the feather cloaks at the National Museum, Hokimate will start to look at other national and overseas collections to compare these findings.
Continued feather identification research will look at how kererü and other species were used in the rest of the Museum's collections of taonga Mäori. Mäori used feathers as decorations in numerous taonga for everyday use and for ceremonial purposes including taiaha (weapons), kete (bags) and piupiu (skirts).
