Pendant

A hei tiki (human form pendant) made of pounamu (greenstone). The human figure has an oversized head tilted to one side, arms akimbo, legs flexed, and feet together. With looped cord and bone button. Rounded head, chin on left shoulder, breast and ribs marked, nose prominent. Pāua (abalone) shell in one eye, perforation through a flange by the left eye.

Hei tiki are carved neck pendants of uncertain origin. Some believe that they represent Tiki, the first man; others believe that the pendants could represent Hineteiwaiwa, the ancestral goddess of fertility. Hei tiki are often heirlooms of prestige. Most were made of greenstone, though some were made of whale bone. Their value derives from the hours of labor required to carve the hard material and from association with the ancestors through whose hands the carvings have passed, from generation to generation.