A fabulous Angled Toki with the Matau (Hook) incorporated handcrafted from a gorgeous piece of green Pakohe (Argillite) stone. The amazing stone creates a beautiful smooth tactile carving and with a bright whale bone notched fin in the base, creates a taonga that's gorgeous and very special.
Toki - Adze
– The Toki had much meaning for Māori, fashioned from stone or greenstone it was an essential tool for survival and day to day life for Māori. That is the reason Māori attribute the spiritual meaning of strength and power to the Toki. This symbol represents Mana, determination, control, strength, focus and honour.
Hei Matau - Fishhook- Originally Māori have been fishermen. Their main food source was the sea, so a fishhook of high quality was an unbelievably valuable item to own. The hook became a symbol of prosperity, abundance, good health, power, authority and respect for the sea and its life in it. They also provide good luck and safety while travelling across water.
Pakohe/Argillite - Known to Māori as pakohe, and to geologists as metamorphosed indurated mudstone, argillite is particularly associated with the Nelson-Marlborough region in New Zealand. It is found on Rangitoto (D'Urville Island), along the Whangamoa mineral belt, and in the upper reaches of the Maitai, Wairoa and Motueka Rivers. Māori valued Argillite’s strength, hardness and ability to hold a sharpened edge – which made it ideal for making tools (especially Adzes).
Whale Bone
has always been a special medium for Māori artists, Whales are considered a taonga species, and represent abundance, richness and were regarded as chiefly animals. Some tribes see whales as the descendants of Tangaroa, the god of the ocean and strandings are seen as gifts from Tangaroa and carving them is a way of honouring that gift. Whales possess a tapu (sacred) significance to Māori as both supernatural beings and as harbingers of personal change and spiritual growth.
Carved by Marshall Johnson
Size 79mm long x 34mm wide 9mm thick
This will be the exact piece you will receive in the photos, there may be a slight degree of colour variation based on different computer or device screen resolutions that you are viewing from.
