The Harakeke has many uses in New Zealand :)

What is Harakeke ? Harakeke (flax) is a type of plant that helps a lot. The Harakeke plant basically represents a family to maori people. The Rito is something they call the “child”. The Rito is the middle leaf right in the center. This leaf is protected by the Awhi Rito (the parents) and surrounding those leaves are the Tupuna (the grandparents and ancestors). Maori people believe that it’s not good to cut the Rito or the Awhi Rito because those are the leaves that help the plant grow more bigger. 

Harakeke is used for many things such as making Baskets, Costumes, Mats, Clothing, houses and many more amazing things. The properties of the Harakeke bushes are medicinal. These Harakeke leaves are really important and useful for things such as cuts and wounds. 

This plant is so important to the Maori people because they basically used it for everything. They built shelter, used baskets for their food and made ropes to hold their shelters up. They also use the mats for them to sit and sleep on. Harakeke is really useful and needed in a Maori life. Like I said before this plant helps a lot with cuts and wounds especially. 

Back in the days Europeans really wanted heaps of Harakekes because they needed it to make strong ropes to hold up their ships. But Maori people didn’t want to give it. This is one of the reasons why Europeans and Maoris signed that Treaty of Waitangi.