Weaving a food basket

Weaving a food basket

BASKET WEAVING

From Te Ao Hou No 3. Summer 1953

Meanwhile we were told many trade secrets. We were also rather struck by a story of a lady whose life was saved by a kono. Her husband, the chief Tapana, had been told she had been unfaithful to him and would have killed her, had not Tapana's other wife, who knew she was innocent, told her that her life was in danger and saved her by a remarkable trick. She threw all the kono of the village into the Waikato River, pretending they were dirty. When the river was covered with the little green baskets, she swam across, her head covered by another kono, so that nobody could see her.

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