Set on the right hand side of the cabinet, the cape, measuring 80cm long x 140cm wide, is made from netted olona’ fibre decorated with borders of alternate triangles of red and yellow honeyeater bird feathers. The centre is covered with long twisted tail feathers of red and white tropical birds and black cock feathers. Large cords of fibre continue at the upper corners to tie the cape. Above the cape is a Hawaiian wicker helmet, the design not unlike that of a classical Greek helmet with a basketry frame cap and a wide central crest running from the centre top of the cap to the nape of the neck.
Covering almost the entire width and half the height of the back wall of the cabinet is a siapo barkcloth made from the bark of a mulberry tree. It is decorated with black and brown dyes in geometric patterns of grids and squares interspersed with abstract fish motifs.
On a shelf at the top of the left hand wall sits a specimen of a Kereru, or New Zealand pigeon. It has blue-green plumage with a purple iridescent sheen on its neck, back and wing tops. Its underparts are white with a clear demarcation between the white and blue-green on the upper breast. It has a yellow bill and a red ring around its eye. Below this hangs a rectangular maori cloak from Opotiki, NZ. It is decorated with kereru feathers patterned in two vertical rows of large white triangles on a brown background. Below this are 6 carved greenstone mere, or short clubs, and 5 hei tiki pendants.
To the right of the Opotiki feather cape on a small plinth stands a 60cm tall terracotta bust of Tawhiao, leader of the Waikato people, the second Maori king and a religious visionary. Lying flat on the plinth next to the bust is a sheet of 25 small squares of tapa cloth samples collected by Captain Cook and, to the right of that, the volume of Sarah Stone’s drawings bound in maroon leather with its spine printed and decorated in gold leaf. Propped up on top of it is a copy of part of page14 of the book, a black and white sketch of two geometrically patterned tapa cloths.
Across the front of the cabinet from left to right lie a dark wooden bird trap, or snare perch, about 40cm long; a 40cm-long conch shell trumpet; 4 fishing hooks of various sizes fashioned from pearl shell, turtle shell, bone and wood; a 35cm-long shallow, oval, dark wooden bowl for sacrificial blood with a notch carved out at one end for ease of pouring; and a tropical octopus in a glass jar. On the extreme right on its own plinth, a specimen of the scarlet Hawaiian Honeycreeper, a small bird with bright red plumage, black wings and tail, a long curved red beak, and red legs and feet, is perched on bare branch.