kokowain.

1836 J. A. Wilson Jrnl. July in Missionary Life & Work N.Z. (1889) iii. 43 Two large totara posts..daubed with kokowai.

1840 J. S. Polack Manners & Customs New Zealanders I. xix. 210 The powáka is kept neatly painted red with kokowai.

1845 E. J. Wakefield Adventure in N.Z. I. 124 A carved post which was painted with kokowai, or red ochre.

1845 E. J. Wakefield Adventure in N.Z. II. 87 The kokowai-painted monuments which I have mentioned.

1879 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 1878 11 75 Kokowai is a kind of pigment, burnt, dried, and mixed with shark-liver oil.

1905 W. Baucke Where White Man Treads 7 The rafters painted with kokowai (iron-ore rust), for a ground colour in red, and adorned with intricate volutes in pipe~clay for white.

1949 P. H. Buck Coming of Maori (1950) ii. xiii. 319 The decorative painting of woodwork did not advance very far in Polynesia. In New Zealand, red ochre, or haematite, was termed karamea and after it was burnt and powdered it became kokowai or horu. The kokowai was mixed with shark oil to form a red paint.

1963 T. Barrow Life & Wk. Maori Carver 28 The red clay or haematite used by the Maori for paint was first burnt, then powdered, when it became kokowai.