Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James B. Wadhams in memory of Miss Helen Humphreys · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗

Pacific Islands, Polynesia, New Zealand, Māori people · 1800s

Neck Pendant (Hei-tiki)

Creator not recorded by the museum

Date: 1800s
Medium: Greenstone (pounamu) (nephrite?)
Dimensions: Overall: 16.9 x 10.2 cm (6 5/8 x 4 in.)
Country / context: New Zealand
Movement / tradition: Oceanic arts
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pathway: Oceanic arts ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

Among the Māori, leaders are hereditary and imbued with mana, power and prestige that can be embodied and passed down in the artworks associated with them. Hei-tiki are among these treasured, mana-charged heirlooms, which connect the living to ancestors of the islands’ pre-European past. They may represent Hine-te-Iwaiwa, a legendary ancestress who is the exemplar of Māori womanhood and the patron of childbirth.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

A MOMENT TO LOOK

Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?

Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.

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