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June 2, 2006
She and Her Graduation Robe Had to Come a Long Way
By JAMES BARRON
It was not the usual gown seen at a college commencement ceremony.
Sarah L. Smith graduated from Hunter College yesterday wearing a handmade cloak of feathers and shells that had traveled more than 8,800 miles but almost couldn't get past inspection at Kennedy International Airport.
Ms. Smith, 32, is a Maori, a New Zealander whose Ngati Kuri tribe made the cloak to celebrate her achievements. She is, she said, the first Maori to graduate from a college in the City University system.
"You have to show you are a worthy recipient," she said, after explaining that her family had submitted a request to tribal officials to have the cloak made.
That was months ago, before 50 people had collected the materials to make it and before her parents had brought it from New Zealand to New York.
So there she was yesterday at Radio City Music Hall, where Hunter held its graduation ceremony, in a dressing room used at Christmastime by the Rockettes. This being commencement season, it was filled with about-to-be graduates in Hunter-purple robes.
Ms. Smith had one of those, but she also had the cloak.
She lifted it out of its carrying case and pulled it over the robe, explaining that the tribe had sought permission from the New Zealand government to obtain the feathers of three species. Each figures in the story she said the cloak tells.
There are feathers from the kiwi to symbolize stability, she said — their feet are planted firmly on the ground because they do not fly.
There are the feathers from the kuaka, also known as the bar-tailed godwit, a migratory bird that goes from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern, as she has already done. Then the kuaka returns to the Southern, as she intends to do.
And there are feathers from the native New Zealand pigeon.
When the undergraduates left the dressing room and filed into the music hall, Ms. Smith's assigned seat was on the main stage, the better to let the audience see the cloak. The president of Hunter, Jennifer J. Raab, even had her stand up and turn around.
The cloak was blessed before it left New Zealand, but that did not ward off what Ms. Smith diplomatically called "the complication with customs." When her parents, Graham and Nettie, arrived at Kennedy last Friday, they told customs officials about the cloak and handed over a sheaf of documents, including a fumigation certificate.
Hunter officials said that when Ms. Smith called the Fish and Wildlife Service last month, she was assured that the cloak could be brought into the country. The inspectors at Kennedy, however, refused to release it. It turned out that the kiwi is an endangered species and the kuaka is covered by an international treaty.
It took calls from the likes of Senator Charles E. Schumer to get the cloak to graduation, Ms. Raab told the crowd.
Ms. Smith enrolled at Hunter after visiting New York and tracking down a friend who was dancing with a Maori group represented by a Hunter graduate, Bess Pruitt. Ms. Pruitt, two sisters and a brother all graduated from Hunter, and in 2002, after Bess Pruitt's 50th reunion, Ms. Smith decided to enroll at — well, you know where.
Yesterday her mother, who had never visited New York before, marveled at Radio City and the excitement of her daughter's graduation, so far from home.
"I didn't expect anything like this," Mrs. Smith said. "This is just magic. I never thought it would end up like this."
June 2, 2006
She and Her Graduation Robe Had to Come a Long Way
By JAMES BARRON
It was not the usual gown seen at a college commencement ceremony.
Sarah L. Smith graduated from Hunter College yesterday wearing a handmade cloak of feathers and shells that had traveled more than 8,800 miles but almost couldn't get past inspection at Kennedy International Airport.
Ms. Smith, 32, is a Maori, a New Zealander whose Ngati Kuri tribe made the cloak to celebrate her achievements. She is, she said, the first Maori to graduate from a college in the City University system.
"You have to show you are a worthy recipient," she said, after explaining that her family had submitted a request to tribal officials to have the cloak made.
That was months ago, before 50 people had collected the materials to make it and before her parents had brought it from New Zealand to New York.
So there she was yesterday at Radio City Music Hall, where Hunter held its graduation ceremony, in a dressing room used at Christmastime by the Rockettes. This being commencement season, it was filled with about-to-be graduates in Hunter-purple robes.
Ms. Smith had one of those, but she also had the cloak.
She lifted it out of its carrying case and pulled it over the robe, explaining that the tribe had sought permission from the New Zealand government to obtain the feathers of three species. Each figures in the story she said the cloak tells.
There are feathers from the kiwi to symbolize stability, she said — their feet are planted firmly on the ground because they do not fly.
There are the feathers from the kuaka, also known as the bar-tailed godwit, a migratory bird that goes from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern, as she has already done. Then the kuaka returns to the Southern, as she intends to do.
And there are feathers from the native New Zealand pigeon.
When the undergraduates left the dressing room and filed into the music hall, Ms. Smith's assigned seat was on the main stage, the better to let the audience see the cloak. The president of Hunter, Jennifer J. Raab, even had her stand up and turn around.
The cloak was blessed before it left New Zealand, but that did not ward off what Ms. Smith diplomatically called "the complication with customs." When her parents, Graham and Nettie, arrived at Kennedy last Friday, they told customs officials about the cloak and handed over a sheaf of documents, including a fumigation certificate.
Hunter officials said that when Ms. Smith called the Fish and Wildlife Service last month, she was assured that the cloak could be brought into the country. The inspectors at Kennedy, however, refused to release it. It turned out that the kiwi is an endangered species and the kuaka is covered by an international treaty.
It took calls from the likes of Senator Charles E. Schumer to get the cloak to graduation, Ms. Raab told the crowd.
Ms. Smith enrolled at Hunter after visiting New York and tracking down a friend who was dancing with a Maori group represented by a Hunter graduate, Bess Pruitt. Ms. Pruitt, two sisters and a brother all graduated from Hunter, and in 2002, after Bess Pruitt's 50th reunion, Ms. Smith decided to enroll at — well, you know where.
Yesterday her mother, who had never visited New York before, marveled at Radio City and the excitement of her daughter's graduation, so far from home.
"I didn't expect anything like this," Mrs. Smith said. "This is just magic. I never thought it would end up like this."
