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The Depository documents 8 techniques in Aotearoa New Zealand; by risk level: 3 critically endangered, 3 endangered, 2 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
Kākahu (cloak) is the supreme Māori prestige textile — the garment that most completely encodes rank, genealogy, and spiritual power.
Tāniko is the Māori tradition of finger weaving — producing geometric patterned borders for cloaks (kākahu), belts, and decorative panels without any loom.
Tukutuku (lattice panels) are the woven panels that alternate with carved poupou (posts) on the interior walls of the Māori wharenui — creating the visual rhythm of carving and weaving that defines the meeting house interior.
The application of tā moko — traditionally and most accurately understood not as tattooing in the puncture-based sense but as a form of skin carving, in which specialist chisels called uhi are used to cut grooves directly into the skin,…
Whakairo rākau (wood carving) is one of the supreme technical and artistic achievements of the Pacific — the carved meeting houses (wharenui) of Māori are among the most elaborately decorated wooden structures in the world.
Pounamu (greenstone — New Zealand nephrite jade) is the most sacred material in Māori culture — the only gemstone of Aotearoa, found exclusively on the West Coast of Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island).
Raranga (plaiting) is the foundational Māori weaving technique — the basis from which tāniko, tukutuku, and all woven forms derive.
The construction of waka — traditional Māori canoes ranging from small river and fishing craft to monumental waka taua war canoes exceeding 30 meters in length and capable of carrying up to 100 paddlers — carved primarily from single…