Post #388294 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Jun 19, 2008 10:36 PM

I think we are all very aware here of animal preservation, and for it. We merely appreciate the naivite that the Tiki generation displayed and their subsequent freedom to utilize all sort of things that are no non-p.c. nowadays. Yet just like we do not subscribe to the racist undertones of Tiki from back then, we would never condone the use of turtle shells nowadays.

But illegal or not, they were part of the classic Tiki decor. I have seen a picture from Ren Clark's Polynesian Village that had a whole hallway ceiling covered with them, I always shuddered at the thought of that massacre that provided them. I used to own one of those wall lamps that was a turtle shell which had resin sea horse cut outs that would glow when turned on. I foolishly had it hanging outside and the poor thing disintegrated within a few years, it decayed like a living thing, it just wanted to die.

I think that shell is just one of the many great specimens of a lost lifestyle that will never come back and thus deserves to be preserved and displayed for future generations to learn about their ancestor's ways, with warnings about illegality appreciated.