Hinaki report

Hinaki (Eel pots)

Opening statement.

A Hinaki/eel pot is something you catch an eel with you would put it in a freshwater current or a stream to try and catch them .The hinaki has  to have bait in it or you won't catch any eel.

How to make hinaki.

Hinaki is handmade you weave it with flax it is handmade from our ancestors and then brought down to us.The best Hinaki was a work of art.A normal Hinaki was called Hinaki tukutuku and it only had one entrance ,when they without a weir the entrance faced downstream.The eels would smell the bait, and swim upstream to find it. Supplejack was also used, but it was a poor substitute. So we started to use flax.

Bait you need to catch eels with.

Hinaki were used with bait – often worms, or even birds. Bait was put in a small pot called a pu toke, which looked like a miniature hinaki, or a small flax bag called a torehe. At other times it was tied inside the hinaki. The Ngati Porou people would thread earthworms on a string and tie them to a piece of flax flower stalk, which floated inside the trap.

Hīnaki at eel weirs were used without bait.

Types on Hinaki.

A large type of hinaki, called hinaki tarino, was used in the Waikato River and its tributaries.

The hinaki waharua had an entrance at each end – waharua means ‘two mouths’.They were set in deep rivers or in lagoons. Temporary waharua were sometimes made of flax leaves and used in the Manawatu River.

Neither of these were used with eel weirs.

Closing statement

Hinaki are meant to catch eels because it is a eel trap but really some people just put it on the wall to make it art and other people use it for hang up for a light shade.