Weaving to save little lives
A small group of women meet every fortnight in Hawke’s Bay with one goal in mind – saving babies’ lives. Marty Sharpe reports.
Every second Monday night they gather in a little hall between Napier and Hastings to weave flax baskets that save lives.
Sometimes there are seven of them, sometimes just two.
For the past four years, this small band of women has been weaving wahakura, the woven flax/harakeke baskets donated to mums who have given birth at Hawke’s Bay Hospital.
Wahakura were introduced about 15 years ago as away of reducing the rate of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) in Ma¯ori babies, which was six times higher than for non-Ma¯ori babies.
One of the causes of SUDI is bed-sharing. Awahakura allows a baby to sleep in the same bed as amother but in a basket that will protect them from the risk of overheating and suffocation.
All over the country, similar groups are holding similar meetings to weave wahakura.
District health boards are contracted by the Health Ministry to distribute about 8500 safe-sleep devices, such as wahakura and pe¯pi-pods, each year.
Weaving tutor Riwa Wawatai began this group in Hawke’s Bay in late 2016.
The women meet at the Waiohiki Creative Arts Village
at 5pm every second Monday and will weave together until some time around 9pm, stopping to share ameal at dinnertime.
‘‘We get together and discuss all sorts of things. Everything, really,’’ Wawatai says. ‘‘But we’ll also talk about things like ways to improve the wahakura design, the best ways of storing and drying the whenu [leaves], what the weather’s doing, that sort of thing.
‘‘The night isn’t just about the weaving. It’s about getting together, having ameal and talking about anything and everything.
‘‘We’ve covered a lot of things over the years in our little gettogethers. And at the end of the session, we’ve all completed a wahakura,’’ she says.
There’s a lot of giggling and self-deprecation.
Most of the women’s weaving is done in their homes. Some make one wahakura aweek, others make four. They are made under contract to the Hawke’s Bay DHB and the women get paid for each one they make.
‘‘It’s quite a big commitment and some people fell off along the way. It’s like a part-time job. We’ve had the same team since 2017,’’ Wawatai says.
‘‘We’re blessed in Hawke’s Bay. There’s a lot of harakeke around. You just have to go looking for it. It’s all along the [Hawke’s Bay] Expressway. There’s a big plot down near the Bridge Pa roundabout which was planted for the weavers.’’
Awahakura will last generations if used properly and stored well.
‘‘Some people only have one baby, so they keep it because it’s amemory of the first time they ever slept in the wahakura. It might become the toy box for that same child, or even a bookcase.
‘‘We want to help as many babies in New Zealand to survive from SUDI and this is our way of helping SUDI prevention.
‘‘They’re beautiful things, and they smell divine, and that smell lasts a long, long time.’’
Annie Tauiwi has been part of the group from the beginning, and her proficiency is evident as her hands and fingers move rapidly from strand to strand.
‘‘I try to make them in the morning. I get up at five or six o’clock. When my son gets up, I help him get ready and take him to school then come back and do some more,’’ she says.
She’s made about 250 wahakura this year, with help from her teenage daughter.
Linda Hill-Rennie began weaving about four years ago and has been part of the group for two years.
‘‘I was an early childhood teacher and a little boy I looked after got me started. He was passionate about all sorts of things. One day he came in and said, ‘Nanny Linda, let’s weave!’
‘‘I saw an ad for a weaving course, so I signed up. I thought I’d do it for him but now I know he did it for me. I loved it, so I kept doing it.
‘‘Now I’m retired and I have something I’m very passionate about and which earns me a little money,’’ Hill-Rennie says.
‘‘Every time Imake one, I think this might save a little baby’s life.’’
Niki Sturgess began weaving about 15 years ago.
‘‘I wanted a kete and someone said ‘go make your own’. That stayed with me and I did a beginner’s course.
‘‘I find it therapeutic. When I feel a bit down, I just go to the flax bush and it all just falls straight out of me.
‘‘You’re always learning. That might sound strange but you’d be surprised at the little things that crop up.’’