Our lovely friend Jilly lent me her tiki prior to conception, which her brother had brought back from New Zealand. It has been suggested that this ornament is a fertility charm representing the human embryo, and that it should be worn only by women.
The shape is probably due to the fact that tiki were often made from adze blades.
Tiki or hei-tiki are most commonly made from nephrite, a stone related to jade and found in several places in New Zealand's South Island. There are traditional accounts for the creation of the stone which relate it to the children of Tangaroa. The tiki is unique to New Zealand and arguably the most archetypical Maori artifact, although the word tiki applied to fertility symbols is extremely common throughout polynesia.
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