The Jade Toki

Before the arrival of European settlers who introduced them to metal tools, Māori used a Toki, painstakingly carved from pounamu (nephrite jade) fixed to a wooden handle with flax to cut down trees, hollow out canoes, and build houses. Pounamu served them well as a wood-cutting tool because of its exceptional toughness and ability to retain a sharp cutting edge. This meant that not only was a pounamu Toki a very practical tool, it also became a symbol of strength and power in Māori culture.

When European settlers arrived many Tokis were transformed into Hei Tikis and traded for metal tools such as axes, saws and drills. Māori are a very practical people and transforming an old Toki nearing the end of its life into a Tiki and using it to barter for metal tools represented excellent business.  

At that time, in the late eighteenth century, Māori were also very warlike. It was an argument over a Toki that led to the murder of ten sailors from the Adventure, a vessel accompanying Captain Cook’s ship, Resolution on his second trip to New Zealand in 1773. They were killed and then eaten at Grass Cove on Arapawa Island in Queen Charlotte Sound after one of the Europeans had taken a Toki but offered nothing in return. Learn more at www.jadefiend.com