Harvesting Kuta and Kiekie

On Friday 28th of May, our class went to lake Ianthe to harvest Kuta and kiekie. 

Kuta: to harvest the Kuta we had to put on gumboots and get into the water to pull the Kuta out of the water. We had to reach right down to the bottom of the Kuta and wiggle it out of the bottom of the lake. The longer pieces are better for weaving and if they had white at the end that's better because you knew that you got the whole piece. Then we put it on a tarp and then it had to be taken to be dried. 

Kiekie: To harvest the keke I had to climb a tree to snap off a branch then bring it out of the bush. Then we ripped the flax-like leaves off the branch and then the flax-like leaves had two white stripes in the leaf. We had to seperate the white from the green and we saved the white parts. They were the good parts. And the green parts were worthless so they went back under the bush for papatuanuku. 

We are going to be drying out the Kuta and Kiekie to be weaving mats and doing cross stitch with the Kuta and Kiekie.