Fijian woman making mats

from w
Peceli brought back two fine mats for me, one made from voivoi, the other from kuta. Mats are often exchanged as gifts in formal ceremonies such as at funerals and conferences. I have about twenty mats now so we share them with relatives and friends.

There's always some one in the village cutting voivoi (pandanus) or kuta (reeds) and going through the tedious process of trimming, boiling, rolling, and eventually weaving the plant material into fine mats. Auntie Luisa at Vatuadova is busy with this kind of craftwork. And it's so in many villages. I've found some photos from Gau, from Yasawa and from Macuata of women making mats.





One expert is a woman from Cikobia Island, off shore from the northeast corner of Vanua Levu.
She is Penina Namata and she has been employed as a development officer with women in Macuata such as Navakasobu and Korovuli where the women use kuta for softer, yellowish mats.

Websites with some explanation about mat making are from fiji arts council and fijituwawa.