Cloak in time for dawn of 2000

By Stacey Bodger

ROTORUA - An intricate Maori kakahu woven by a Rotorua woman will take centre-stage during the Chatham Islands millennium celebrations.

Debbie Tuuta, aged 29, has spent nine months completing the cloak, which will be worn by her father Albert Tuuta, a kaumatua from Ngati Mutunga in the Chathams, at a dawn ceremony on January 1.

The islands will be the first inhabited land to see the sun at the start of the new millennium.

Debbie Tuuta's sister began making the kakahu in the Chathams in 1997.

Mr Tuuta brought it to Rotorua this year so his second daughter, who had moved to the city in her teens to attend John Paul College, could complete it.

Debbie Tuuta fashioned the kakahu from hundreds of feathers, with the help of tutors at the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute's weaving school.

Navy pukeko feathers alternate with white feathers and are woven on to wool to represent peace and unity, while a black and white bottom panel symbolises kaimoana (seafood) and shark teeth.

Debbie Tuuta is delighted with the finished kakahu, which her father will also wear on his regular visits to the mainland.

Mr Tuuta says the kakahu will hold great significance because it was made by his daughters.

"I'm very proud of them. I haven't seen it yet but it sounds magnificent and will be in our family for many generations."