Scientists are planning to use geochemical fingerprinting to find the origin of treasured Māori cloaks.
Rangituatahi Te Kanawa, a conservator at Te Papa, specialises in Māori textiles. Photo: Te Papa Tongarewa
Many of the highly prized korowai and Māori textiles held in storage have no connection to where or who made them.
It is hoped the analysis of the dyes used on the cloaks can be used to track the garment's origins.
The project, led by GNS Science forensic geochemist Dr Karyne Rogers and Te Papa textile conservator Rangituatahi Te Kanawa, has won funding for three years from the Marsden Fund.
Dr Rogers hoped the research would locate the origin for some of the cloaks and textiles held at Te Papa and other museums.
The korowai were removed, gifted or taken from their point of manufacture and all that information did not carry on with the cloaks, which means they can't tell who made them or where they came from, she said.
The cloaks were dyed using black mud (paru) and the scientists will use the trace elements in the iron-rich muds to provide a unique fingerprint to link them to particular parts of New Zealand.
"We're looking at geochemical signatures in the mud that was used in the traditional dyes and we are going to look at the textiles themselves... We hope to make geochemical connections from the cloaks back to the geological origins," Dr Rogers said.
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Once they are able to identify the geological origins, they can then make the re-connection back to the people who made the korowai.
The traditional dye used on the garments was also the reason the korowai were so fragile - something Māori weavers would've known, Ms Te Kanawa said.
"It's not customary in Māoridom that one thing should last forever and, whilst Māori would've witnessed degradation of the dyed black fibre, they would've just gone about making another," she said.
"It is also because the korowai are in such bad condition, it makes it even more important to find their home.
"It would be a good thing to connect these taonga to their origin and to their people and their whenua," Ms Te Kanawa said.
Dr Morgan of GNS Science hoped to have help from iwi.
"We're hopeful iwi will be keen to support our project and potentially give us small fragments of their korowai or other paru dyed textiles and access to their paru pits to take samples."
The research team will also interview key iwi members to increase the knowledge and understanding of traditional paru use.