Cloaking our team in GREATNESS

Dana Johannsen investigates the extraordinary lengths it took for officials to get the New Zealand team’s taonga to Tokyo for the Olympic Games.

After each Olympic Games, Te Ma¯ hutonga – the ka¯ kahu (cloak) worn by the flag bearer for the New Zealand – is returned to master weaver Ra¯ nui Nga¯ rimu. She carefully lifts the tube the garment is stored in out of its pelican case, unfurls the precious feathers from acid-free paper, and smiles.

It is never in the same condition that it left her in. The glossy feathers are matted, sometimes some have even been lost.

That does not bother Nga¯ rimu, who in 2004 was among a group of master weavers from around the country who collectively spent thousands of hours creating the taonga for the New Zealand Olympic team ahead of the Athens Games.

‘‘Each time it comes back to me it needs a bit of tidying up. I have replaced a few feathers on it and done quite a bit of tidying, because when it is draped around the flag bearer everybody wants to touch it, and that’s OK,’’ says Nga¯ rimu, a member of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa (the national Ma¯ ori weavers group).

‘‘If that helps athletes be inspired and think about home, and make them feel part of something bigger, then that’s OK. If it means having to replace some feathers every so often, so be it.’’

Last night Te Ma¯ hutonga (the Southern Cross) once again took its place on the world stage, as double Commonwealth Games gold medal winning boxer David Nyika and Black Ferns Sevens captain Sarah Hirini led a scaled-back New Zealand contingent marching in the opening ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Games. A last-minute change to the Olympic rowing schedule forced Hamish Bond to hand over his opening ceremony flagbearer duties last night, as he instead prepared for an early race this morning.

As rising Covid-19 cases cast a shadow on the event, the atmosphere at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium was expected to be sombre compared with the usual joyous spectacle of mass choreography, lights, pyrotechnics and musical numbers.

Instead of more than 10,000 athletes marching into a crowded stadium, numbers for the team parade were expected to be well down, in a largely empty stadium bar a few hundred officials, and with tight social distancing rules.

But to Nga¯ rimu, the exercise remains an important uniting factor for the New Zealand team.

‘‘For me it is about telling the story of New Zealand and our team from Aotearoa,’’ she says.

‘‘Many hands went into the making of the ka¯ kahu, Ma¯ hutonga. Whether it was by the gathering and preparing of the fibres and feathers, and the weaving itself. And many hands went into helping those athletes to become Olympians. That’s what I think about when I see it.’’

Te Ma¯ hutonga is the result of a call to arms from the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC).

In 2004, Nga¯ rimu, the then chairwoman of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu, was asked to attend a meeting with other Ma¯ ori leaders to discuss what could be done to ‘‘enhance the visuality’’ of the New Zealand team at the Olympic Games and build cohesion in the team. It was decided a cloak would be made for the flag bearer, along with a pounamu. Nga¯ rimu recalls the project coming together in the space of only seven months ahead of the Athens Olympics.

‘‘There was a very short time frame to get it done. We called on the weavers from across the country to contribute if they could.

‘‘It was just incredible the amount of coming together to make it happen in time for Athens.’’

Nga¯ rimu, who designed the cloak, while the late Te Aue Davis led the weaving efforts, estimates that there are 400 to 500 strands of prepared flax fibre in the cloak, along with more than 100 feathers, including kiwi, ka¯ ka¯ po¯ , toroa (albatross) and tieke (saddleback).

It is the composition of

Ma¯ hutonga that means officials must go to extraordinary lengths to get the cloak to each of the Games venues.

As New Zealand is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) – an international agreement between governments to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of species – getting the ka¯ kahu to Tokyo for the opening ceremony became a major diplomatic mission.

‘‘Because the cloak contains feathers of endangered species, you require certain permits and permissions to carry it out of the country and into the other country, and then back into New Zealand,’’

says Natalie Tong, the NZOC’s team services manager.

‘‘In addition to CITES, there is another piece of legislation that we require documentation under, which is we need authority to export under the Wildlife Act 1953.’’

Tong says the process for getting the required documentation usually starts about six months out from the Games. In a role that involves organising the eyewatering logistics of managing the travel, performance and health needs of 211 elite athletes, she says assembling the correct documentation for Ma¯ hutonga is one of the most complex tasks for the support team.

And the stakes are high. ‘‘Because of the cultural significance and the significance to the team, it is up there with one of the more challenging tasks, and it is something we can’t get wrong because there is no back-up.

‘‘The difficult part can be when you are trying to explain what the ka¯ kahu represents and the significance to our team. It is explainable in English, but when you’re dealing with scientific terminology and trying to meet legal requirements and dealing with countries that don’t have the same cultural context, it does become difficult. We’ve been very fortunate that the New Zealand

embassies in the countries we’ve been dealing with have been able to help us out in that regard.’’

For Tong, who jokes that despite having a fear of birds, or in her words a ‘‘troubled relationship’’ with them, the time, effort and paperwork is worth it.

‘‘When we go anywhere, we are a cohesive team, and so bringing the team from all different parts of the country and all different sports who have their own ways of doing things, and not often connecting with each other. To bring them in and connect with each other was all about having these taonga to present to the athletes and the team as a whole and to help instil some pride.’’

Nga¯ rimu expected that seeing the flagbearers walk into Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium would be an emotional moment for her.

Like other years, she planned to watch the television coverage of the opening ceremony from her Christchurch home. The sight of the cloak she had a hand in designing and making in the spotlight at a global event always gives her goosebumps.

‘‘I always stand up when the New Zealand team comes in, and I make my family stand up if they’re here with me,’’ she says. ‘‘I look at [the ka¯ kahu] and think, ‘Yep, that’s what it’s about.’ ’’