Pendant

Greenstone pendant. Hei tiki. Human figure with oversized head tilted to one side, arms akimbo, legs flexed, feet together. With looped cord and bone button. Rounded head, chin on left shoulder, breast and ribs marked, nose prominent. Paua shell in one eye, perforation through a flange by the left eye.

Greenstone pendants ( hei tiki ) were, and are, treasured Maori ornaments. 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.