Post #272047 by Paipo on Tue, Dec 12, 2006 9:21 PM

I've heard of a pekapeka, and a koropepe, but not the mokopeke...after googling I see it is on the carving.co.nz site, but it doesn't look at all like a traditional design to me - at least not one I've seen in any of my books on Maori art. Another one, the "traditional" design they call Roimata, is a contemporary design created by a NZ jade carver in the 1980s.
There are a lot of so-called Traditional Maori designs that have no basis in tradition and are given made-up names and obligatory legends to capture the tourist's imagination and money! (the single/double/triple/xxx twist being the most famous...) I'm as guilty as any of this when I was only working in jade, although I made sure they were my made-up names and designs!
It pays to take anything online related to bone or jade carving with a grain of salt....
Nice carving regardless!