12 years ago Jean learned to weave korowai, traditional Māori feather cloaks. Her source of feathers varies from unravelled feather dusters to roadkill. To date, Jean has made 15 cloaks for her community.
But now she faces her own mortality, with the realisation that she hasn’t made one for her daughter. For this korowai, Jean takes us on a weka hunt to the windswept and barren Chatham Islands, Rekohu – 600 kilometres off the coast of Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand.
It’s a tough time, given that Jean is now on her third round of chemotherapy, but she is adamantly determined to make one last trip. Jean’s openness and honesty are refreshing, as she tells her story with humour and frankness.
