Kuki Reka Kani Manu Cookie Cutters Set of 3

Tūī (Deep blue): The Tūī for Māori is often associated with life fulfillment, confidence, and spiritual harmony.

Tūī birds are said to be messengers of the Gods and Goddesses. They acted as a medium to communicate with the gods and goddesses in Māori beliefs.

Māori sometimes trained Tūī to say traditional Māori phrases. Some chiefs taught their caged birds complex speeches.

The Tūī cookie cutter colour represents the beautiful bird’s feathers in a striking deep blue.

Pīwakawaka (Burnt Orange): Pīwakawaka or Fantail is known for its friendly call and energetic flying antics. Pīwakawaka are very friendly and are not afraid to hang around people.

Fantails remain in pairs all year round. Their fan is an adaptation that makes them very manoeuvrable in the air and able to quickly dart about to catch insects in flight. The Pīwakawaka cookie cutter colour represents the beautiful bird’s chest feathers in rusty orange.

Kea(Olive Green): The Kea is a taonga (treasure) for Māori.

Māori legend tells how the cheeky Kea bird got the beautiful splash of ‘secret’ colour hiding away beneath the Kea’s drab exterior. The Kea looked longingly upon the more brightly coloured feathers of other birds and wished for beautiful plumage. In the middle of the night, the Kea stole some of these brightly coloured feathers and secreted them under his wings before flying away.

These native parrots are highly intelligent and known for their cheeky personalities. The Kea cookie cutter colour represents the bird’s feathers in olive green.

Kuki Reka Kani: Kaumātua Inspired Cookie Cutters

The Kuki Reka Kani are unique cookie cutters, inspired, developed and named by our lovely  Kaumātua at Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust. The cutters were initiated to help Kaumātua  with dementia, to engage in cooking therapy that promoted Te Ao Māori, cultural heritage, and  whakapapa in a social and fun way. Cooking therapy stimulates smell, taste and touch senses in dementia patients which can bring back memories from decades ago.

Several hui were held with groups of Kaumātua to help identify the most appropriate Māori designs for use in kai. The chefs at Rauawaawa helped shape the development of the designs to ensure the cutters worked easily with people from Kaumātua engaged in cooking therapy, tamariki in schools, rangatahi in home economics classes, home cooks and their whānau and professional chefs.

The cutters are designed to cut through the dough and leave a pattern imprinted on the dough in one easy push. This makes them gentle on both elderly hands as well as providing a large grip for children to hold. The patterns reflect the look of a chiseled whakairo rākau (wood carving), an important aspect in Māori culture.