Update Our ticketing, donations, and membership sales portal is down for scheduled maintenance on the afternoon of 4/11.
Maori (New Zealand/Aotearoa) wooden staff/club known as taiaha, flattened and wide at one end and the other with a carved face and tongue. The pointed end takes the form of a decorated tongue projecting from the open mouth of a stylized head, carved on both sides. The eyes of the head are inlaid with shell. The taiaha was used in hand-to-hand combat, and are still used in mau taiaha, an ancient form of stick fighting.
clubs (weapons)
wood (plant material)
shell (animal material)
Maori
Club
Original to Phillips House (Salem, Mass.),
E47,161
FD070
Unknown
Pacific Island Group
49 3/8 x 2 1/2 x 1 3/4 (HxWxD) (inches)
Gift of the Stephen Phillips Memorial Charitable Trust for Historic Preservation
2006.44.1198
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=132774
New Zealand
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
Sign up to our newsletter for our latest news and events
