Lollie Leis

Lollie leis with Ainsely

On Tuesday we made 80 flax lollie leis with Ainsely from the Gala Crew. First of all we found out about Maori and what they believe about flax. You have to cut the flax in the morning. Maori make Kete from flax. They make big weaves and small weaves. The big weave is for kumara so when you drag it along the ground the dirt will come off. The small weave is for sea food so that they leave it in the sea the sand will come out.

After that we had to learn how to make a lei or necklace with the flax - harakeke.  It is not as easy as it looks.  We had split the flax into long pieces.  Some pieces are used to make the necklace part and others are cut up and used to tie the lollies onto the necklace.

We have to really make sure that we tie the lollies carefully onto the necklace so that they don't fall off when the flax dries.

We think that 80 leis on our first day is pretty good but we think we will do better next time because we know what we are doing.  We hope to make several hundred so we can we can sell them at the gala and make some money for the school.

By Finn and Halle