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Overview
This pare (lintel) has three main full-frontal figures carved in shallow relief across its front. Each has a chevron-like motif between its thighs. The chevron motif has been identified as being of East Polynesian origin. The three figures are separated by takarangi (dizzy) spirals with smaller pitau (black tree fern: Cyathea medullaris) spirals and manaia (stylised beaked figures). The takarangi spirals may represent the turbulence at the moment of creation when, according to Māori legend, Tāne (god of forests and birds) separated the earth and sky in order to let in light.
Connection
The whole composition connects the deified central figures to the world of the living so that viewers would have been able to see an unbroken line of succession through their ancestors to the moment of creation. The pare also would have demarcated the space between the outside area of the marae (central area of village) and the interior of the house as people entered the kūwaha (doorway). The house itself would have represented the body of either the progenitor ancestor of the tribe or some other significant ancestor.