CLOAKED IN LIFE AND DEATH: Korowai, kaitiaki and tangihanga

Indigenous New Zealand Māori have maintained many customs evident in our pre-contact histories and, ever-pragmatic, we allowed and continue to allow for the introduction and infl uence of contemporary ideologies and objects of signifi cance. In te ao Māori, our world, such objects include taonga tuku iho, treasures from the past handed down to us. Our taonga are revered repositories that can reveal much about their owners, those owner's families, and the histories of our people, preceding and subsequent. Their tangible presence is often subtle, yet their social signifi cance can be historically and culturally far-reaching, movingly evocative and even controversial. In the experience of these three authors, kakahu and korowai are just such exemplars. In so saying, as revered treasures of the Māori, they are guarded preciously and vigilantly by custodians or kaitiaki whose caretaking roles are perhaps all too often unsung. In this paper we seek to explore that juncture between our kaitiaki and their/our revered taonga tuku iho, in particular, unique and rare cloaks of the Māori. It is these taonga which Māori aspire to being, at some point, cloaked, in life and death.