Berkley Normal Middle School in Kirikiriroa, Hamilton is set to receive their kapa haka group’s completed piupiu in February next year after a two-year struggle to get them completed by a local weaver.
The Berkley Kapa Haka group is the pride of its school. Performing in the group fills student Karyse Whioke-Taylor with mana and charisma.
“That pride, it makes me feel confident about who I am as a person,” she said.
Fellow student Michael James agreed, saying it’s “like nothing you can really feel if you don't perform”.
But they’ve had to perform without their full kapa haka regalia for the second year in a row.
The school replaced their kit in 2019 but the piupiu never arrived. Piupiu are the skirt-like garments that sway when a performer moves.
They're made of strands of dried harakeke (flax) through a long and particular process of harvesting the right materials; pattern drafting; marking of the flax; miro (spinning) of the flax strands; and boiling, drying, and dyeing the materials; followed by the assembling and weaving of the garment.
Fair Go's talked to many weavers who say the average price for one can vary from $400 to $550, depending on the size, and it can take on average about four to six weeks to make one.
For tamariki, they're quite a special thing to wear, making them feel strong and confident when they perform.
“Because it's only a select group that get to wear it, it's a real honour, you know they've earned that privilege,” former Berkley teacher Cindy Wihongi said.
Wihongi, on behalf of the school, took charge of ordering the piupiu from the local weaver, who she says was recommended to the school by a member of Berkley’s extended school family.
“Somebody said, ’oh, we know this person and they have a little business that makes piupiu,’” Wihongi said.
“We had no reason not to feel confident.”
After conversations with the weaver about quantity and price, the school was quoted $12,900 for 24 piupiu to be made in three different sizes.
The weaver charged between $250 to $450, depending on the size, which the school thought was very fair.
“When you speak to people and you say, ‘We're paying $450 for a piupiu’, they're like, ‘Whoa, that's a lot of money,” Wihongi said.
“But when you look at the work that's going into them, it is huge, so we thought it was a really fair price.”
The process of making them and getting the right people for the job is something Berkley principal Nathan Leith and the school took seriously.
“These are quite a significant part of the overall kapa haka costume so there needed to be some sensitivity in making sure that we're getting the right ones,” he said.
“We thought we had it right.” But two years later, there’s still no piupiu.
“Our school is a Year 7, 8 and 9 school so most of the students that started this journey have now moved on to high school”, Leith said.
So what went wrong?
The school paid the 50 per cent deposit of $6450 in October 2019. At that point they understood a team of weavers would be completing their order by day one of Term 1, 2020.
That day came and went and no piupiu.
But the weaver came back to the school at the beginning of 2020 and said they didn’t have the capacity to complete all 24.
“So seeing that we had paid for 50 per cent of them, they would commit to completing the 12,” Wihongi said.
Leith said the school “did give them some leeway”.
“We understood and we took them at their word that they would deliver this product in the time frame.”
But that time frame kept changing.
“There was one reason after another as to why it was unable to be completed by a particular date,” Wihongi said.
Within the weaving group and their extended families, there were a number of deaths, weavers had pulled out, and Covid-19 restrictions made it difficult to complete certain tasks.
“It has been a difficult two years and so we're not here really out on a witch hunt to try and publicly shame or anything like that with these people,” Leith said.
“At the end of the day, we just want these uniforms for our kids.”
The students are frustrated too.
“I've been in this three years and I'm still waiting,” Michael said.
“I'm gonna be honest here - I think it really sucks,” Karyse added. “I'm off to high school next year and not being able to have this piu, it's not a nice feeling.”
But in July this year, the school thought their lucky break had come. The main weaver organised for other weavers of the group to meet with Wihongi to hand over the completed piupiu. Wihongi sent a fellow teacher to meet them.
“It was really bizarre,” Wihongi said. “She (the other teacher) went down to meet them, she waited half an hour.
“We assumed that whoever it was would walk in with a pile of piupiu and we'd be able to recognise them.”
The weavers failed to turn up. But one of them called Wihongi later saying only three piupiu were finished. That was the last time anyone heard from the group until Fair Go got involved.
Their main weaver got in touch with Fair Go and said Covid restrictions and family bereavement impacted the weavers. The weaver also says they are “willing to mend, re-connect with the school community and fulfil the commitment”.
The weaver went on to say, “I am not a criminal and don't want to give up on this order. I'm committed to completing this order in February 2022, so that my integrity in my raranga, weaving skills and mana will be upheld.”
Wihongi is sceptical, fearing that it may be another empty promise. “I'll be absolutely rapped if they can meet that promise made to us,” she said.
Leith commended the weaver for reaching out. “I give the team some credit that they are going to front this.”
Come February next year, the Berkley Kapa Haka group are hopeful their kit will be complete.
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