Canoe prow

This small sculpture, thought to be a canoe prow carving, is similar to the small figure at the base of a Māori taurapa (stern post). It originates from the Marquesas islands and may have represented a deity associated with the sea and perhaps with fishing. Marquesan art is often compared with Māori art because of its widespread sculptural use of the human figure and extensive decorative carving.

Materials and decoration techniques
The sculpture is carved in wood. The principal figure is male, his legs held up by a smaller facing figure whose head is now missing. Both figures are completely decorated in fine surface carving, representing the full body tattoo of a Marquesan man. The ears of the larger figure are pierced. There are two pierced lugs on either side of the back of the larger figure's head. These could have held the cords for strings of feathers or other fibre decorations.

Significance
The Marquesan tiki figure appears in many forms, from large stone images of deities and carved wooden house posts, to small stone figurines used by priests in rituals and toggles made from human bone. Small three-dimensional wooden images are rare, and are largely confined to canoe carvings.