Magazines - Tribal Art Winter 2011

By Magali Mélandri, is curator for Oceanic art at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

Introduction
An icon of Maori art, ubiquitous in New Zealand Aotearoa imagery,1 the anthropomorphic hei tiki pendant has been seen and interpreted in many ways. Its omnipresence, from the first drawings made by European travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in which it appears to the examples seen in international public and private collections, demonstrates how seductive this strange figure rendered in stone or bone has been to the Western eye. Over time, the enduring nature of the canons it represents has been remarkable and, for the Maori, a testament to the visual effectiveness and formal perfection of their hybrid image.
Etymologically, the term hei tiki puts the object squarely in the Polynesian realm. The prefix “hei” means “neck” and, by extension, refers to any element hung around the neck. The term occurs in other Polynesian languages within the linguistic variation specific to each archipelago. Hawaii, for example, has the “lei” niho palaoa (a necklace of hair with a hook-shaped whale tooth pendant), and Easter Island has the “rei” miro (a wooden crescent-shaped pectoral ornament). The term “tiki” also links the object with the Marquesas and Society Islands. In those island groups, Tiki was the first human ancestor. According to Maori mythology, he was created by Tane, the deity of the forests and the trees, and the primordial separator of father-sky Ranginui and mother-earth Papatuanuku.