Durvillaea antarctica. Rimurapa. Bull kelp.
Māori names
Common names
Food
Eaten (Colenso 1868a).
Roasted and eaten (Taylor 1855).
Kelp boiled together with tutu juice in a trough, formed black jelly when cold, called rehia. Process described. (Māori informant in Beattie 1920). [N.B. Dr Murray Parsons suggests that rehia was made from a carrageenan weed, not kelp. Ed.].
A Māori informant considered that kelp possessed some special quality in preserving the taste of what it held, and said he had heard of a proposal to send butter away in kelp bags (in Beattie 1920).
Used as fodder for cattle ( Francki, cited in Schiel and Nelson 1990).
Fishing and hunting
On the Chatham Islands, bull-kelp was sometimes used to cover sides and bottom of canoes. Called waka rimu. Also used in construction of waka pahi. (Best 1925).
Domestic
Large sections inflated, used as calabashes (powha), particularly for holding cooked animal food in its own fat, and for oil (Colenso 1868a, 1868b).
Used for water vessels (Best 1927).
Shortland"s party encountered a group near Timaru with a cargo of poha-tītī, cooked muttonbirds in oil packed into a bag made of kelp. The exterior of the bag was covered with tōtara bark and ornamented with feathers. The muttonbird fat often resulted in eczema. (Shortland 1851).
Kelp bags for preserving muttonbirds, human flesh, eels (Beattie 1920). Informant saw many weka preserved in kelp poha. If air kept out would keep for years. (Harry Wixon to Beattie, MS 582/E/11, Hocken Library). Birds, pigs cut up fine also preserved (Tumeho Matene, ibid.)
In South Westland, weka preserved in own fat and packed in seaweed bags (Madgwick 1992).
Medicinal
Tender end roasted and eaten as cure for scabies and intestinal worms (Brett's Guide 1883; Goldie 1904).
Seaweeds, particularly bull-kelp, used for vermifuge (K. Pickmere 1940).
Related pharmacology and chemistry in Brooker, Cambie and Cooper 1987.
Chemistry
Moss and Naylor 1954 have analysed the chemical composition of New Zealand Durvillaea species.
Used for sodium alginate and as fertilizer ( Francki, cited in Schiel and Nelson 1990)
