Canning jars
Threaded, heat-processing jars hold food and a fitted lid during a tested canning process; jar size and process belong to the specific recipe.
Equipment · Bags, sacks and casings
Pōhā (bull-kelp bag)
Pōhā
Pōhā are traditional southern Māori storage bags made from bull kelp. Ngāi Tahu accounts describe tītī stored in the kelp bag, with bark and a woven kete protecting some documented examples during transport.
A storage bag made from bull kelp
Pōhā are flexible storage bags made from the broad blade of bull kelp, called rimurapa. South Island Māori, including Ngāi Tahu communities, used them for tītī (muttonbirds) and other preserved foods. The kelp is a plant material, not an animal skin or an intestinal casing. The bag’s role is to contain stored food and travel with it; the name pōhā should not be reduced to a generic leather pouch or treated as a uniform design used across every Māori community.
Sources for this section
Kelp bag with bark and kete protection
A 1910 photograph and accompanying Ngāi Tahu oral account show the bag as part of a layered transport package: a softened kelp vessel is tied, placed in a flax basket, and protected with tōtara bark. Te Papa’s 1997 pōhā tītī ME015916 is one surviving example with kelp, bark and muka fibre, catalogued as a kelp bag covered in bark strips and placed inside a woven kete. This composite is useful evidence for the equipment’s real materials, but it is not a template proving that every pōhā had the same outer layers.
Sources for this section
A flexible vessel for food storage and transport
Bull-kelp blades can be opened, hollowed and inflated, then dried, rolled up and carried for seasonal use. In the described tītī process, birds are stored in the pōhā under their own fat and the top is tied to exclude air. The Te Ara transcript preserves an elder’s recollection that birds in kelp bags were still good after at least three years; this is a personal account, not a general storage guarantee. Te Papa gives bird counts for common and larger bags, but does not make them a single capacity standard.
Sources for this section
Geography and evidence limits
The inspected accounts place pōhā use among South Island Māori and Ngāi Tahu, with tītī gathering and storage connected to Rakiura (Stewart Island) and nearby islands. A dated 1910 photograph and a 1997 museum object show two points in a longer tradition, but neither supplies an origin date. The sources do not establish a standard size, capacity, seam, closure, maker or care routine for all pōhā; museum measurements belong only to their named object.
History
A Te Ara caption dates a photograph of men preparing pōhā to 1910, and a 1997 Te Papa object documents a later composite example. These are dated attestations, not a first-use date.
Equipment details
CapacityNo standard volume is supplied. Te Papa describes a common size holding 40–50 birds and some pōhā holding up to 110; these counts are not a standard capacity for every bag.
SizeTe Papa lists one composite 1997 object as 300 × 480 × 220 mm; no standard dimensions for pōhā are established.
PowerNo power A plant-material storage bag; no powered mechanism is described.
How you get oneNot established The sources describe gathering and preparing kelp but do not give a general route for obtaining a finished pōhā.
CareThe inspected sources describe preparation of kelp and transport layers, but do not specify cleaning or reuse instructions for a finished pōhā.
Made of
- Bull kelp (rimurapa) — Inner storage bag
The kelp blade forms the flexible bag; Te Papa describes pōhā as made by opening and inflating the bull-kelp blade. - Tōtara bark and muka fibre — Protection and outer basket in documented composite examples
A 1910 Te Ara account and a particular 1997 Te Papa object describe kelp bags protected by tōtara bark and carried inside a woven basket; this is an example, not a claim that every pōhā has identical layers.
Limits
The Te Papa dimensions and object materials describe one 1997 composite pōhā tītī, not a standard pattern or measurement for every bag.
Source →The 1910 photograph and testimony are dated attestations, not a first-use date; the oral account's storage-duration memory is not a universal shelf-life guarantee.
Source →Places
South Island
Traditional use · Region evidenceThese sources associate pōhā with South Island Māori and Ngāi Tahu food storage; this does not establish a universal pan-Māori practice.
Rakiura (Stewart Island)
Documented use · Locality evidenceTe Papa links tītī collection and storage customs with Rakiura communities and nearby islands; it does not claim this is the only pōhā use area.
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Sources
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaForm · Material · Method · Use · Geography
Traditional Māori food gatheringPōhā are bull-kelp bags used by South Island Māori for storing and transporting preserved food, including tītī.
The page describes bull-kelp blades being opened, hollowed and inflated, then dried, deflated and rolled before use.
It describes tītī stored in pōhā under their own fat, with tōtara bark and woven kete used as outer protection in the described process.
It reports typical and larger bird counts rather than a standard volume capacity.
Cited in: A storage bag made from bull kelp; A flexible vessel for food storage and transport; Geography and evidence limits
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New ZealandMethod · Geography · History
Preparing muttonbird containersThe page caption dates a pōhā-preparation photograph to 1910 and identifies the containers as bull-kelp bags for tītī.
The oral account describes a softened kelp bag being tied, placed in a flax basket and surrounded by tōtara bark.
The speaker recalls preserved muttonbirds in kelp bags lasting at least three years; this is personal testimony, not a general shelf-life guarantee.
The page identifies the historical image as Hocken Collections, University of Otago S07-053c – E2918/10 and warns that reproduction may require clearance.
Cited in: Kelp bag with bark and kete protection; A flexible vessel for food storage and transport; Geography and evidence limits
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaForm · Material · History · Geography
Pōhā tītī (kelp bag), ME015916The particular object was made by Harold Ashwell in Bluff in 1997 and is catalogued with kelp, bark and muka fibre.
The museum describes it as a kelp bag covered in tōtara-bark strips and placed inside a woven kete.
Its listed dimensions are 300 × 480 × 220 mm; these belong to that object, not a standard size.
The museum connects tītī collecting and storage with Rakiura (Stewart Island) communities and nearby islands.
The object photograph has an All Rights Reserved rights statement.
Cited in: Kelp bag with bark and kete protection; Geography and evidence limits