Alex Sands

Pekapeka / Bat
*Whale Bone, paua (inlay), waxed cord
93 x 60 x 8mm
Ag #42-4
NZD $1755

Pekapeka – Bat
Pekapeka are ancient carved forms, and are the representation of the native bat of Aotearoa. It is said that M?ui-tikitiki-a-Taranga, the great trickster would take on the form of the pekapeka. Worn on special occasions it is carved as a twin manaia.  The Pekapeka (native NZ bat) represents the interwoven nature of the spirit world and the world of the living – the seen and the unseen. The bat was interpreted by M?ori as a creature who symbolically acted as an interface between the two worlds and whose physiology (which does not possess the gift of sight) appeared to be guided by the ethereal and the metaphysical.

*due to CITES, whalebone cannot be sent internationally from New Zealand.