Status of capes or Ahu’ula.

The feathered cape on display in the Pacific Culture Galleries was made for Queen Liliuokalani. Capes of this kind were only ever made for royalty, or high chiefs. They were worn on ceremonial occasions or in times of war and were a major symbol of social rank and status in the strict class system of Hawaii. The capes were highly prized, and were passed down from one ruler to the next. In traditional Hawaiian society red was the most valued and sacred colour, because it was connected with the gods and represented royalty.

Captain Cook, along with other early European explorers recognised the value and beauty of these cloaks. In 1778 Cook wrote in his journal that the surfaces of the capes “might be compared to the thickness and richness of velvet”. He also commented that the Hawaiians would not initially part with one of the capes for anything that he offered.

How did the cape come to the Otago Museum?

Queen Liliuokalani’s cape came into the collections of the Otago Museum between 1954-1956, via a number of collectors and museums. The cape was initially presented in 1897, to the Elgin Museum in England by the Countess Dowager of Leafield. How the cape came into the possession of the Countess of Leafield is a mystery. Kenneth Athol Webster, an expatriate New Zealander living in London, acquired the cape from the Elgin Museum. Webster was a keen collector of Pacific ethnographic material and a major collecting source for the Otago Museum

How were they made?

Queen Liliuokalani’s cloak is made from the yellow feathers of the black honey creeper or O’o bird and the red feathers of the scarlet honey creeper, or I’iwi. These feathers were gathered into bunches and tied onto a net of vegetable fibre in overlapping rows. It has been estimated that the largest cloaks would be covered with nearly half a million feathers.