[4] These helmets are made from a woven frame structure decorated with bird feathers and are examples of fine featherwork techniques.

While the Hawaiians did not wear hats, during times of combat the Ali'i chiefs would wear specially created wicker helmets that have been likened to the classic Greek helmets, and also coincidentally bear a resemblance to the headdress worn by Ladakh Buddhist religious musicians.

[5] The design for mahiole is a basketry frame cap with a central crest running from the center of the forehead to the nape of the neck.

However the variation in the design is considerable with the colour and arrangement of the feather patterns differing and the crest varying in height and thickness.

A related Hawaiian term Oki Mahiole means a haircut where a strip of hair is left on the head.

[8] In addition to Freycinetia arborea the makers also used fibre from the Touchardia latifolia plant[9] which is a type of nettle.

[13] When Captain James Cook visited Hawaii on 26 January 1778 he was received by a high chief called Kalaniʻōpuʻu.

Much of the material from Cook's voyages including the helmet and cloak ended up in the collection of Sir Ashton Lever.

(The British Museum failed to bid on these items as Sir Joseph Banks had advised them that there was nothing of value.).

This bright red and yellow mahiole was given to the king of Kauaʻi, Kaumualiʻi, when he became a vassal to Kamehameha I in 1810, uniting all the islands into the Kingdom of Hawaii.

[19] The other two were purchased in 1948 by the New Zealand Government from William Ockelford Oldman, a collector and dealer in ethnographic antiquities.

The feathered helmet from the British Museum was chosen to be one of the items featured in the radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects.

[22] Cook's mahiole and cloak are featured in the mini-documentary television series Tales from Te Papa filmed in 2009.