Tiki Head
The face that keeps watch
The guardian’s gaze
It looks straight at you, and it does not blink.
The eyes are wide and fixed. The brow is heavy. The mouth is open, showing a row of teeth, fierce and defiant. Around the face, broad leaf-like forms radiate outward like a mane or a crown, and an ornamented band runs down the forehead.
At first glance, it might feel intimidating. But look a little longer and the fierceness starts to feel protective rather than threatening. This is a face that stands between you and the dark. A face that would hold the door while you slept. Most of us have known someone like that: someone with a fearsome look and the gentlest loyalty.
About the name
The title Tiki Head draws on the word tiki. Te Ara notes that traditions differ about what the hei tiki, a carved neck ornament, represents: one suggests Hineteiwaiwa, an atua associated with fertility; others suggest Tiki, the first man, or an embryo. Our design is a contemporary engraved artwork, not a carving, and we don’t identify it as any particular figure or assign customary meaning to its features.
The artwork
This piece has the look of a carved relief panel. A large face fills a central circle, with wide eyes, a strong nose with flared nostrils, and an open mouth full of teeth. An ornamented band with patterned detail runs down the centre of the forehead. Around the face, broad, leaf-like or feather-like forms spread outward in a sunburst, and swirling patterns fill the cheeks and brow.
Outside the circle, the square frame is decorated in each corner with curling motifs, so the whole design reads like a medallion set into a wall. The engraving’s warm, sculpted shading gives everything depth, as if the face were pushing forward out of the coaster. On the warm, light ground of the wood, the effect is rich and earthy, like old wood lit by firelight.
Tribute
A tribute made with respect Our work is a contemporary artistic response to Māori storytelling and its deep connections with land, sea and ancestry. The visual interpretation offered here is Aroha Artisan’s. The traditions themselves belong to the communities who hold and pass them on, and the published accounts below offer a starting point for further learning.
Published accounts:
Hope Tupara, “Te whānau tamariki – pregnancy and birth” (hei tiki image and caption), Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/27621/hei-tiki