Neck Pendant (Hei-tiki)
Unknown Artist
1800s
Medium
Greenstone (pounamu) (nephrite?)
Dimensions
16.9 × 10.2 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Oceania
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James B. Wadhams in memory of Miss Helen Humphreys
Accession Number
1969.107
About this artwork
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.