item details
NameHei matau (pendant)
ProductionUnknown; carver; 1700-1850; New Zealand
Classificationnecklaces, pectorals, pendants
Materialspounamu
Techniqueslapidary
DimensionsOverall: 103mm (width), 83mm (length)
Registration NumberOL000096
Credit lineOldman Collection. Gift of the New Zealand Government, 1992
Overview
Hei matau are stylised fish hook neck pendants, usually made from pounamu (New Zealand greenstone). This older example is highy stylised. It was formerly part of the William Ockelford Oldman (1879-1949) collection and was repatriated by the New Zealand government in 1948.
Symbolic representations
Hei matau are symbolic representations of the fish hook used by the ancestral Polynesian cultural hero Māui. According to legend, Māui hauled up the North Island of New Zealand, Te-Ika-a-Māui (the great fish of Māui), from the depths of the ocean during a fishing expedition with his brothers. Hei matau also denote the importance of fishing to Māori, and their relationship to Tangaroa (the guardian of the sea and its environs).