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Maori tiki with paua eyes · New Zealand

Wheku face · koru spirals · genuine paua shell

Item no. 090-227-000

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Description

A slender standing figure in dark-stained wood, of the kind carved in New Zealand as a tekoteko. The eyes are inlaid with real paua shell — the green-blue nacre that shifts colour in the light.

What you see

Wheku face: broad nose, protruding tongue — in Maori art a sign of strength and defiance, not rudeness
Koru spirals across brow, cheeks and body
Paua shell inlays in both eyes

Placing it

Good souvenir quality from the decades between 1960 and 1980, cleanly finished by hand. Not a museum piece, but well above what today's gift shops carry.