Carved Wheku Mask 12.5cm by Derek Drewry landscape painting Embossed Silver Fern design

Embossed Silver Fern design

(This piece cannot be exported)

Photo credit:  Renee Edwards

Manaia means containing Mana (prestige and power)

Cannibalism is known to occur

Carved Wheku Mask 12.5cm by Derek Drewry landscape painting Embossed Silver Fern designHandcarved by Derek Drewry Ngati Te Rangi Iwi NZ Totara wood 9cm x 12. 5cm x 3cm The wheku (gable mask) sits below the tekoteko (standing figure) on the top of a whare nui (meeting house). The mask can be related to an important ancestor of the house or be symbolic of a story relating to the origins of the carving. A wheku in your home can be seen as a guardian role.