From the exhibition Talking About at Objectspace (until 3 December 2004)

I'm always being asked who made my blue hei tiki. In our whanau we have three of them, all in different colours. Unlike other families though, ours are not hundreds of years old and made from pounamu but are formed from corian and plastic cordage. Their colours, red, green and blue, resonate against the carved paddle made by Rangi Hetet on which they hang.

Image: Hei tiki by Rangi Kipa (resin) 2003 Ellis Whanau CollectionsFrom the exhibition Talking About at Objectspace (until 3 December 2004)

I'm always being asked who made my blue hei tiki. In our whanau we have three of them, all in different colours. Unlike other families though, ours are not hundreds of years old and made from pounamu but are formed from corian and plastic cordage. Their colours, red, green and blue, resonate against the carved paddle made by Rangi Hetet on which they hang.

Image: Hei tiki by Rangi Kipa (resin) 2003 Ellis Whanau CollectionsMy mother bought the first at a gallery in Christchurch whilst we took time out from the Pacific Arts Association conference last year. We argued over what colour was best, agreeing that the green corian was just too alluring to return to its case. My sister and I then asked for one for Christmas. Being twins (although not identical) we were always colour-coded and so Hana chose the red and I the blue. We wear these hei tiki with pride, as examples of how vibrant Maaori art is, and how our customary adornment forms are constantly changing and shifting.

Maaori have always delighted in decorating their bodies. This was serious work and could include up to three layers. First, moko would be etched onto the skin, cut deep to emphasise the lines and curves. On top of this, a range of pigments, colours as diverse as purple, yellow, blue and red would be daubed all over the body. The final touch would be added with the placement of particular taonga, treasures, in the hair, around the neck, through the ear, and wound around the wrists and ankles. The final product was designed to make a strong statement about the identity and mana of the wearer.

Over 1,200 years Maaori styles of personal adornment have adapted with the changes in our culture. The early forms strongly paralleled those in the Pacific, such as kaoma, breastplates, and rei niho, whale's teeth pendants, and with the discovery of pounamu came a range of innovative designs, including the hei matau and the hei tiki. It is the latter which has become possibly one of the most potent symbols of Maaori culture. There were two types: the earlier type is fairly rare, being more delicate and including details such as ears, elbows and knees. A later type is the style that dominates most contemporary examples; it is characterised by a heavier styling with larger facial features and a body which is more vertical. Within these styles there are tribal versions, closely related to wood-carving figures; in those from Taranaki, for instance, the peaked forehead reminiscent of their maunga (mountain) is almost always included.

This tribal variation is pertinent to the work of one of its members, Rangi Kipa of Taranaki, Te Atiawa Nui Tonu, and Ngati Maniapoto. A qualified carver, Kipa has used his training to fashion exquisite taonga puoro such as koauau and putorino and equally delicate items of personal adornment. His work challenges stereotypes about Maaori art as he investigates old forms using new materials. In her catalogue essay to the exhibition Mata: Maori Adornment (2001), Deidre Brown categorises Maori jewellery into three phases based on the types of material used. Her third phase is characterized by the introduction of 'Paakehaa goods' and the 'adoption of Western Techniques, materials and education.' And it is these 'Paakehaa goods' which Kipa enjoys playing with and has become known for.

For this exhibition, I chose our three hei tiki which were made by Kipa from corian ®. This is more commonly associated with kitchen benches and sinks glorified in the latest home decorating magazines (see www.corian.com). For Kipa, using corian ® offers him a chance to not only move into a new direction and investigate the properties of a different medium, but also provides a cheaper alternative to more traditional media, particularly paraoa and pounamu.

On another deeper level, it also can be understood in terms of a critique of the misappropriation of aspects of Maaori culture. With hei tiki, there are several examples, but for the purposes of Kipa's corian works we immediately think of plastic hei tiki, particularly those associated with Air New Zealand who, for some years gave them away to passengers arriving in this country as mementos of Aotearoa.

Kaore a te rakau whakaaro, Kei te tohunga te whakaaro.
The insight is not in the wood (or pounamu or paraoa), it is in the artist.

This whakatauki is particularly appropriate to the philosophy behind some of Kipa's work. He consciously reinvigorates customary techniques and skills, some of which have not been passed on down the generations due to colonization. He talks about them: 'These processes effectively are an inheritance of over a thousand years of occupation and the unbroken transfer of the mauri, they are doorways to walk with our tupuna of the past.' Another Maaori artist who also investigates how Western materials can be used to make statements about Maaori resources is Michael Parekowhai. His work Everyone will live quietly - Micah 4.4 (1990) uses formica ® chosen for its resemblance to pounamu and also for its play on the words Micah 4.4. Such playfulness with materials keeps us engaged as a viewing public and prompts us to go past the aesthetic to find deeper readings of the works.

Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu.
Although it is small, it is greenstone. Even the smallest things have value.

It is these materials which often provide the dividing line between whether something is deemed to be an art object or a craft item. The Arts Board committee of Creative New Zealand includes the category of 'craft/object' within their funding regime. This includes, '(but is not confined to) pottery/ceramics, jewellery, cast or blown glass, weaving/textiles and furniture design.' This separation of art and craft seems for the purposes of this funding body to be based on materials. It is worth noting here that Rangi Kipa has just been awarded the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award recognizing artistic excellence for his hei tiki Hay Tiki! Since its inception in 1999, this is the first time that a non-ceramist has won the award.

Within Maaori culture there was no distinction, at least in terms of the language, between objects which would be deemed craft as opposed to art. Our nearest terms used to describe such items would be toi or taonga, or even whakairo. All have their particular nuances in terms of how they were used: for example, a whare whakairo might be translated by some as 'carved house' and others as 'decorated house'.

The concept of Maaori art has been transformed since the Te Maori exhibition (1986). Here the curating team was quite overt about the identity of art - quite simply it was anything that was carved. This ranged from weapons to breastplates to gigantic waharoa, gateways. Some questioned the way in which women's work, the weaving, the craft, remained in the storerooms, too "fragile" to travel. Was gender politics at play here? Perhaps. But for the purposes of this essay it is significant that items of personal adornment, tiny amulets made of paraoa and large heavy hei tiki carved from pounamu, possibly carved by women, also were included within the definition of art.

The hei tiki form has become one of the most potent symbols of Maaori
culture. Its allure has not been missed by non-Maaori artists keen to
"appreciate" Maaori art by including its form in their work. This can range
from jewellery - Warwick Freeman's Tiki Face (1992) made from jasper, greenstone, gold and silver - to painting - Dick Frizzell's bizarre transmutations of the form in his Tiki series of 1992. These works relate to the form of the hei tiki as it is often said that the tiki figure is the source for the hei tiki type. Some may question why Maaori are so concerned about people from outside our culture using motifs and symbols from ours. For Freeman and Frizzell, their use was prompted by discussion in the art world about appropriation centred on Gordon Walters and Theo Schoon and others - to which Maaori artists were also responding, such as Michael Parekowhai's Kiss The Baby Goodbye (1994) . Through colonization, certain aspects of Maaori art and culture have been eroded and debased; this has led Maaori to become very protective over what remains. This includes important symbols, such as the hei tiki. Perhaps an analogy could be drawn to the sensitivities surrounding the use of the New Zealand flag. When it is trampled on or debased in any way there is often uproar. Indigenous people should not need to still justify why they have access to their own cultural images, and those who are "outside" the culture do not. Is it not enough that they are part of our cultural heritage, an integral aspect of who we are as a people and our ties with our whakapapa and whenua? Kati!

Contemporary Maaori artists continue to use hei tiki as a platform to discuss pertinent issues facing Maaori culture today. Kai Tahu photographer Fiona Pardington has, since 2001, been researching hei tiki - none of which, to my knowledge, have been displayed before - from her tribal area of Kai Tahu, and re-presenting them in photographic form in order to examine the politics of museum collection and display. Bob Jahnke of Ngati Porou used a range of hei tiki forms in his recent work Top Forged Artefacts (2001) as a political statement about the commodification of Maori art and its impact upon one cultural form in particular. Meanwhile, fellow Ngati Porou artist Robyn Kahukiwa recently included plastic hei tiki in her series He Maori Ahau (2002) as a symbol of Maaori identity. This re-presentation demonstrates the significance of such taonga tuku iho for Maaori today and displays their function as portals to the past.

Hei tiki remain unique markers of Maaori identity wherever they are used and worn. Their presence today is not limited to craft and souvenir shops but by being utilized by contemporary Maaori artists takes on a new level of appreciation, as an art form whose meaning changes according to its use, forever retaining its significance as a potent symbol of what being Maaori is today.

Ngarino Ellis is a lecturer in art history at the University of Auckland.

Hei Tiki is reprinted from Talking About with the permission of Ngarino Ellis and Objectspace.

Talking About was a project curated for Objectspace by Damian Skinner with contributors Don Basset, Richard Fahey, Bronwyn Fletcher, Moyra Elliott, Ngarino Ellis, Louis Le Vaillant & Rigel Sorzano, Sean Mallon, Anna Miles, Cushla Parekowhai, Elizabeth Rankin and Grant Thompson all of whom have selected an object and written about it.

17/11/04