Material

The material used in plaiting house accessories, food platters, and baskets, and the commonest form of floor mats, is the leaf of the coconut palm. For other baskets and mats, recourse is had to the pandanus.

The coconut leaf. The coconut leaf is termed lau niu (lau, leaf, and niu coconut) while the leaf midrib is lapalapa. The upper surface of the leaf is the alo (front) and the lower surface the tua (back). The leaf midrib is four sided for about half its length. The lower surface is wider than the upper. All surfaces diminish in width towards the tip end. At about halfway, the converging edges of the upper surface run together and continue on as a raised ridge, while the two lateral surfaces and the under surface persist, thus making the tip end half of the midrib triangular in section. The leaflets are symmetrically arranged on either side and spring from the lateral surfaces of the midrib. They run obliquely outwards and towards the tip end of the leaf. Each leaflet has a strong midrib which is attached to the lateral surface of the midrib just below its upper edge. At its attachment it runs a little backward towards the butt end and then merges in the leaf midrib. The leaflet midrib is termed tuaniu and is used for various purposes, such as needles and for sewing roof sheets of sugarcane leaf. The leaflet material on either side of the leaflet midrib come together at the leaf midrib and are attached to its lateral surfaces in a vertical line extending downwards from the leaflet midrib. In certain forms of sheets and baskets, the leaflet midrib is pressed down with the thumb to open out the leaflet to its full width. In technique, this will be referred to as the "open leaflet," In other forms of sheets and baskets the leaflets as wefts are not opened out but kept doubled throughout with their midribs forming an edge of the weft. For distinction, this will be called the "closed leaflet." The young leaves in the middle of the page 169leaf head that are not opened out are called moemoe (sleeping). The young, soft leaflets become very white when dried and are used in making the white ilitea fans.

The formation of the leaf influences technique. The leaf midrib readily splits longitudinally and excess material is split off from the lateral surface strip bearing the leaflets. The midrib strip forms a natural commencing edge with the wefts already fixed in position. With the alo surface upwards and the midrib strip towards the worker, the strip from the left side of the leaf (itu lauanga vale) has the butt end towards the left and the leaflets incline towards the right, thus forming natural dextral wefts. With the strip from the right side of the leaf (itu taumatau) in the same position, the butt end is towards the right and the leaflets incline towards the left, thus forming natural sinistral wefts.