Celebrating our National Rugby Team, The Black Ferns
The Black Ferns
are New Zealands premier womens rugby team and the most dominant team in all of rugby with Rugby World Cup titles in 1998, 2002 2006, 2010 and 2017 and 2021 (played in 2022). They have one of the best winning percentages in international rugby, with victory in over 85 percent of their Tests.
The Black Ferns
successful 2017 season was a landmark one for womens rugby with the Black Ferns
becoming the first womens team to ever be named the World Rugby Team of the Year.
In 2022, the Black Ferns
captured the imagination of Aotearoa when they lifted the Rugby World Cup on home soil for the first time. Playing in front of a world record crowd of 42,000 for womens rugby, the Black Ferns edged England 34-31 in a thrilling final.
Manaia
is a mythological creature in Māori culture and is a common motif in Māori carving and jewellery. The Manaia is usually depicted as having the head of a bird and the tail of a fish and the body of a man, though it is sometimes depicted as a bird, a serpent, or a human figure in profile. The Manaia is traditionally believed to be the messenger between the earthly world of mortals and the domain of the spirits, and its symbol is used as a guardian against evil.
Heru, used by Māori to fasten long hair into a top knot. These also identified the rank of the wearer and were usually carved from a single piece of whale bone or wood and on occasion decorated with paua shell.
Traditionally carved from Whale bone, however these days many bone carvings are made from cattle bone as it is an ethically abundant source.
All carvings are packaged in a Black Ferns
display case with a hologram authenticity sticker and meaning card.
