Thank goodness we had this wood carving shipped from an art gallery on the North Island of New Zealand because it is all we have to supplement our memories. On the eve of our flight back to the United States, our motel room in Auckland was broken into while we were sleeping. Evidently, we had not latched the sliding glass door properly and a man entered the room about 4 a.m. My travel buddy sat up and uttered something completely incoherent, scaring the man away, but not before he grabbed a backpack. We lost our slides of the North Island, our cash and our passports! We spent the next morning filing a police report and getting an official letter of entry into the United States from the consulate. My purse had been stowed under the bed so we still had our plane tickets and credit cards. I'm not sure in these post 9/11 days, if it would be so easy!
My Maori man with his intense stare reminds me to be constantly vigilant. We check and double check all doors now and are very careful to divide our valuables between us. I'm sorry we lost the photographs of the Maori meeting houses, ridge poles and canoes. The designs carved into the wood were so detailed and full of meaning that we spent days wandering through museums and cultural centers admiring this intricate form of art. The human form above is not of a god, but of an ancestor or distinguished warrior. Spirals and fern shapes are prominent features in Maori art and can be seen today on the tattoos that have once again become so popular. My sculpture does not have the protruding tongue, which is another characteristic feature in Maori reliefs. The tongue represents determination, strength and defiance. But, oh, those eyes! Forever vigilant!
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