Maori Pendant, New Zealand

Deeply and boldly carved from a piece of greenstone, or pounamu, of crystalline beauty, this large and impressive pendant amply illustrates that a hei tiki is a taonga or treasure that may be appreciated as much for its tactile as for its visual quality.

This hei tiki is carved from a piece of pounamu of the inanga type, named for its resemblance to the pearlescent silver-green colour of the galaxias, or inanga, a freshwater fish native to Aotearoa. Historically inanga was the pounamu that Maori most prized, and the mystical qualities possessed by all pounamu seem tangible in this piece. Here the pounamu is the colour of celadon, with flashes of olive, and a beautiful grain that seems to swirl around the contours of the sculpture like the water that flows over the pounamu in the rivers of Te Waipounamu, “the waters of greenstone”, the South Island of Aotearoa.

Inset in the deeply carved sockets of the eyes are two scarlet rings of sealing wax that form a striking contrast against the soft green of the pounamu. Sealing wax found favour among Maori in the 19^th century, since the colour red had special sacred significance and was, moreover, “the colour of high rank” (Neich, Carved Histories, Auckland, 2001, p. 146).