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Amy: Hi, Mike, are these New Zealand carvings we've been studying in class fascinating.

Mike: Oh, Hi Amy. Oh, the Maori Greenstone tikkis. They're all a bit organic for my taste, you know, all curves and twisting shapes. I like modern stuff, geometric shapes, but I can see the skill involved in making them.

Amy: But the stories behind the tikkis are what make them interesting. Besides, I imagined it would be difficult to create geometric patterns. The shape of each Tiki seems to follow the natural contours of the stone. It's extremely hard, and it requires expertise and time to shape.

Mike: That's true. I suppose that's why modern Greenstone carvings are so expensive, but there aren't that many genuine old ones around. Archaeologists rarely discover such treasures, which is odd given they are such a huge part of Maori culture. I wonder if archaeological dig sites were raided and the tikkis were taken to sell?

Amy: I believe it's because the owners valued them, and so preserved them. Many of them would have been passed down through the generations and remain in the possession of the families today. Like heirlooms. Do you know what they were used for?

Mike: I thought they were just an art form or a means of decoration. But Professor Matthew says that the Maori believe tikkis were sacred and could be used as a pathway to their ancestors. They believed the dead could speak to them through these talismans.

Amy: So they don't represent tribes or anything. Interesting. How many different kinds are there? There must be hundreds of variations.

Mike: There are other greenstone carvings beside tikkis. Although I can't remember all their names. Traditional tikkis themselves can be divided into two distinct groups though.

Amy: Can they buy the materials? I've seen some with metal features, or is it to do with size or where they were made? Actually,

Mike: It is the ways that their feet, heads and hands are placed that make the major difference?

Amy: Is it easy to discern the difference between the ancient stones and more modern reproductions? Are the styles very different?

Mike: Modern reproductions usually use a different type of stone. Although they may be of the same design. They may also be of a smaller size, but it's actually quite easy to tell if you are buying a genuine carving or a mass produced souvenir. Nowadays they are produced by machine using lasers. Even so, they have no blemishes. In genuine carvings, they aren't always perfect because the Maori used simple hand tools. For example, the hole that the cord is fed through isn't perfectly round.

Amy: That makes sense.

Amy: It's amazing that they produce such detailed tikkis with such simple tools and materials. Talk me through the process. I know the basic shape is carved from New Zealand Greenstone.

Mike: Yes, but first they had to get a blank of the right size.

Amy: You mean a piece of stone of the right size and basic shape?

Mike: That's right. They used a hard stone tool—something rough—to wear a groove into a piece of greenstone. After they'd scored it with that, they could just snap it off. I guess they could have used some kind of hammer though. They repeated the process until they had a piece of stone suitable for what they wanted to carve. Usually flat pieces for tikkis.

Amy: Right, because they're fairly small and quite thin. Then they started carving.

Mike: Not right away. Before they could start carving, they needed an absolutely smooth flat surface. Nowadays, when we want to do something like that, we'd clamp the stone in a vise and use a sander, but they used a heavy block of sandstone and rubbed the piece of Greenstone on it over and over to prepare it for carving.

Amy: It must have been very time-consuming. So how did they cut out the little details like hands and feet?

Mike: They had carving tools. They used small chips of stone glued and tied onto a wooden handle. Then they also used a piece of sharpened bone made into a point.

Amy: Is that what they used to make the holes?

Mike: Actually, they had a special tool to make holes. It was a stick tied between two heavy pebbles with a point at the end. They would wrap string around it, pull it back and forth to wear a hole into the Tiki. They used the same technique to make round shapes too, but didn't make the hole go all the way through.

Amy: And I've seen some tikkis with colored eyes or decorations or they painted.

Mike: Mostly they are inlaid with different colored stone or mother of pearl from shells or sometimes dyed pieces of bone. They were fixed in place using terracotta gum, a sticky plant resin. They used plants to make the natural strings too.

Amy: That's right. The Maori were very resourceful when they certainly were.