Cook Islands Crafts

COOK ISLANDS CRAFTS
Art from the heart

Love, patience and skills handed down through generations have transformed two traditional crafts into art forms. This page aims to give an insight into another unique aspect of Islands' life.

TIVAEVAE/TIVAIVAI
Tivaevae (also spelled "tivaivai) means to stich or sew and in essence, it's the art of making magnificent patchwork bed covers. Islanders also apply similar skills to producing stunning cushion covers. Cook Islands women often describe the work as "something from the heart".

Now this is definitely not a field in which I'm expert, unlike the women of Atiu to whom I am grateful for this description of their amazing art.

RITO HATS

Any Sunday on any of the Cook Islands, you can expect to see some of the finest hats in the world, adorning the heads of women on their way to church. Rito (pronounced ree-toe) hats are justly prized and come out also for special occasions such as baptisms and weddings. The home of rito hat making is the Northern group island of Penrhyn.

"It is a pieced or appliquéd, sometimes heavily embroidered unquilted coverlet, the colourful post-missionary substitute for the tapa cloth of ancient times. Even today, on the home island or abroad, a Cook Islander's life is wrapped in tivaivais. Whether for a haircutting ceremony, an important birthday (21st in particular), a wedding or the grave, tivaivais decorate the hall where the celebration takes place, are given to or cover the floor, chair, bed, body or coffin of the revered. They are not normally for sale, but specially made for family members as sign of affection. "

Once a year, usually at the end of November, Atiu's village or church women's groups (vaine tini) exhibit their tivaivais and related textile works. Participating in those shows is an honour. Atiu tivaivais are also exhibited annually at the National Museum on Rarotonga and have been shown in museums and galleries abroad.

The pictures and information above are courtesy of Atiu Tourism Inc.
I strongly recommend a visit to their site which is a fantastic tribute to an amazing island and its people. I defy you not to want to visit after reading about it.

LEARN THE ART YOURSELF
Andrea Eimke (left) has been vice president since 1998 of the Cook Islands Tivaevae Association. And she can help you learn the art for yourself and create your own quilt or wall hanging. Her Atiu Fibre Arts Studio run five day courses of private tuition. Her web site has all the details, as well as more pictures and information about the studio and about Atiu.

Rito hats and church go together on Mauke

THE GILBERT ISLANDS LINK
69 year old Noema Mahitarkiki - a former Penrhyn islander now living in Queeensland, Australia - has been making the hats since her grandmother taught her at the age of 14. She says the tradition started when men from the Cook Islands visited the Gilbert Islands in the 1800s and brought back wives who had been taught the art of plaiting coconut palm fronds into unique purses, fans and hats. The hats are usually adorned with mother of pearl shell which the men grind and polish.

PLAITING AND CHATTING
Part of the custom involves the women gathering in each others homes to weave, sing and share stories while plaiting the fibres around a solid wooden mahogany hat mould to achieve the perfect shape. The fibres themselves are cut, boiled, dyed and then scraped and it takes about three days to complete the hat.

HEARTS AND MINDS
None of the patterns is written down...islanders just think of them in their heads and then put their hearts into the work. Some of the hats can sell for hundreds of New Zealand dollars.

Hats and church go together on Mauke as they do throughout the Islands. I found the fine example below on a pew in the Ziona Church ("the divided church").