Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Harnessing harakeke – a new future for a traditional taonga
By Sally Blundell of Frank Film
It could change the performance of a pickleball paddle, snowboard or surfboard.
It could also reduce our reliance on carbon fibre, restore Māori tikanga and put unproductive land to sustainable use.
For Ben Scales and William Murrell (Ngāi Tahu), co-founders of KiwiFibre in Christchurch, the potential of composite materials based on the durability and energy-absorbing properties of harakeke is nothing short of world-changing.
“We’re solving the world’s challenges through using natural materials that allow humanity to prosper,” says Scales. “We are using harakeke and composite textiles to replace carbon fibre and fibreglass which have significant environmental, human and technical challenges.”
And the market potential?
“It’s many markets, worth trillions of dollars. Pretty much everything starts with a textile.”
Early Māori regarded harakeke as a taonga. It was used for clothing, footwear, traps, mats, kete, lashings for waka and traditional rongoā medicines.
Early Pākehā also recognised the potential of harakeke for floor coverings, insulation and, most importantly, rope.
The first patent for a leaf-striping machine was issued in 1861 and by the 1890s the flax industry was booming.
Vaughan Templeton, curator of the still-operational Templeton Flax Mill Heritage Museum at Otaitai Beach near Riverton, points to a photograph of his great-grandfather William Templeton who developed a commercial flax milling enterprise on that site in 1911.
“It was New Zealand’s largest export by volume – bigger than butter, bigger than wool, bigger than timber.”
By 1905, when flax milling was its peak, there were around 240 mills throughout the country.
From the end of World War One, the industry began to decline, the result mainly of the Depression and the availability of cheaper synthetic fibres.
By 1972, almost all the commercial flax-processing plants in New Zealand had fallen silent.
Half a century later, Scales and Murrell were engineering students at the University of Canterbury. One of their assignments was to resolve the issue of cabbage tree (tī kōuka) leaves, which cannot be recycled through green bin collection systems. Nor, they discovered, harakeke leaves.
In looking for uses for the flax (harakeke is not botanically a flax but a lily from the Hemerocallis family), they used a barbecue to make a skateboard prototype from the fibre. It was a success.
By the time Scales and Murrell graduated in 2022, at the age of 23, they had founded KiwiFibre Innovations and raised $1.5 million to develop the fibre for hi-tech industrial uses.
They experimented with a front bumper for a road version EV rally car – it came out at half the weight of the original front bumper.
As Scales reasoned, if it was good enough for a rally car, “it’s good enough for sport equipment.”
Morrell says the company is ready to scale up to meet global demand for an alternative to carbon fibre but as a member of the Harakeke Industry Alliance, they want to ensure this is achieved through sustainable land use and Māori tikanga.
As with most crops, commercial flax crops used to be planted in soil- and biodiversity-depleting rows, then cut away in its entirety. “It would take eight years for the plant to grow back properly,” says Scales.
On a farm near Te Waihora-Lake Ellesmere, harvesters take only the outer tīpuna or grandparent leaves, so allowing for the healthy growth of the inside leaves in accordance with Māori tikanga.
In planting harakeke on floodplains and unproductive farmland, they are also hoping for a sustainable transition of land use that will help restore biodiversity without threatening food production.
While other countries plant hemp and linen on food-producing land, “We don't want to be taking land away from those production areas,” says Jules Haus, KiwiFibre partnerships and growth lead. “We want to be adding to those areas that can’t be farmed for those purposes.”
Even waste material is put to productive use. Back at KiwiFibre HQ in Christchurch, harakeke juice has been used to make KiwiFibeer Harakeke Pale Ale – just a small taste of what Scales and Morrell are hoping to achieve.
“Eventually it’ll be tens of thousands of tonnes a month that are being harvested and processed and turned into high value products for international markets,” says Scales. “That requires a fully fledged industry in New Zealand contributing to hundreds of thousands of jobs, prospering regions and communities, and boosting the Māori economy.”
Credits:
Producer/Director/Cameraman/Interviewer: Gerard Smyth
Writer/Researcher: Sally Blundell
Editor: Oliver Dawe
Researcher/Second Camera/Drone: Ellie Adams
Line Producer: Erina Ellis
Sound Design/Mix: Chris Sinclair
Production Manager: Jo Ffitch
Attributions:
Templeton Flax Mill
Harnessing harakeke – a new future for a traditional taonga
By Sally Blundell of Frank Film
It could change the performance of a pickleball paddle, snowboard or surfboard.
It could also reduce our reliance on carbon fibre, restore Māori tikanga and put unproductive land to sustainable use.
For Ben Scales and William Murrell (Ngāi Tahu), co-founders of KiwiFibre in Christchurch, the potential of composite materials based on the durability and energy-absorbing properties of harakeke is nothing short of world-changing.
“We’re solving the world’s challenges through using natural materials that allow humanity to prosper,” says Scales. “We are using harakeke and composite textiles to replace carbon fibre and fibreglass which have significant environmental, human and technical challenges.”
And the market potential?
“It’s many markets, worth trillions of dollars. Pretty much everything starts with a textile.”
Early Māori regarded harakeke as a taonga. It was used for clothing, footwear, traps, mats, kete, lashings for waka and traditional rongoā medicines.
Early Pākehā also recognised the potential of harakeke for floor coverings, insulation and, most importantly, rope.
The first patent for a leaf-striping machine was issued in 1861 and by the 1890s the flax industry was booming.
Vaughan Templeton, curator of the still-operational Templeton Flax Mill Heritage Museum at Otaitai Beach near Riverton, points to a photograph of his great-grandfather William Templeton who developed a commercial flax milling enterprise on that site in 1911.
“It was New Zealand’s largest export by volume – bigger than butter, bigger than wool, bigger than timber.”
By 1905, when flax milling was its peak, there were around 240 mills throughout the country.
From the end of World War One, the industry began to decline, the result mainly of the Depression and the availability of cheaper synthetic fibres.
By 1972, almost all the commercial flax-processing plants in New Zealand had fallen silent.
Half a century later, Scales and Murrell were engineering students at the University of Canterbury. One of their assignments was to resolve the issue of cabbage tree (tī kōuka) leaves, which cannot be recycled through green bin collection systems. Nor, they discovered, harakeke leaves.
In looking for uses for the flax (harakeke is not botanically a flax but a lily from the Hemerocallis family), they used a barbecue to make a skateboard prototype from the fibre. It was a success.
By the time Scales and Murrell graduated in 2022, at the age of 23, they had founded KiwiFibre Innovations and raised $1.5 million to develop the fibre for hi-tech industrial uses.
They experimented with a front bumper for a road version EV rally car – it came out at half the weight of the original front bumper.
As Scales reasoned, if it was good enough for a rally car, “it’s good enough for sport equipment.”
Morrell says the company is ready to scale up to meet global demand for an alternative to carbon fibre but as a member of the Harakeke Industry Alliance, they want to ensure this is achieved through sustainable land use and Māori tikanga.
As with most crops, commercial flax crops used to be planted in soil- and biodiversity-depleting rows, then cut away in its entirety. “It would take eight years for the plant to grow back properly,” says Scales.
On a farm near Te Waihora-Lake Ellesmere, harvesters take only the outer tīpuna or grandparent leaves, so allowing for the healthy growth of the inside leaves in accordance with Māori tikanga.
In planting harakeke on floodplains and unproductive farmland, they are also hoping for a sustainable transition of land use that will help restore biodiversity without threatening food production.
While other countries plant hemp and linen on food-producing land, “We don't want to be taking land away from those production areas,” says Jules Haus, KiwiFibre partnerships and growth lead. “We want to be adding to those areas that can’t be farmed for those purposes.”
Even waste material is put to productive use. Back at KiwiFibre HQ in Christchurch, harakeke juice has been used to make KiwiFibeer Harakeke Pale Ale – just a small taste of what Scales and Morrell are hoping to achieve.
“Eventually it’ll be tens of thousands of tonnes a month that are being harvested and processed and turned into high value products for international markets,” says Scales. “That requires a fully fledged industry in New Zealand contributing to hundreds of thousands of jobs, prospering regions and communities, and boosting the Māori economy.”
Credits:
Producer/Director/Cameraman/Interviewer: Gerard Smyth
Writer/Researcher: Sally Blundell
Editor: Oliver Dawe
Researcher/Second Camera/Drone: Ellie Adams
Line Producer: Erina Ellis
Sound Design/Mix: Chris Sinclair
Production Manager: Jo Ffitch
Attributions:
Templeton Flax Mill
