Cast bronze mounted on base of Hawaii Island koa (Acacia Koa)
Cast bronze mounted on base of woven lauhala
5″ x 8″ x 6″ high
Edition of nine cast 1981
$5,000 (each)
The niho palaoa (whale-ivory ornament) is among the most beautiful sculptural forms created in ancient Hawaii. It is also the most enigmatic and mysterious, for while it identifies royalty, no explanation of what it symbolizes has survived. The form may have originated on Hawaii Island during the reign of Umialiloa (1600-1620), for the palaoa has been referred to as “the tongue of authority” and in Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii, Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau related the following legend: “In the story of ʻUmi and Liloa when ‘Umi offered sacrifices in the hieau of Moaʻula at Waipio, the god Ku came down from the heavens in a black cloud and in a rainbow (‘onohi) and licked up the offerings with a tongue of fire.”