Please identify this stone tiki

Hi guys

Could someone please identify this stone Tiki? I'm really interested to know which Hawaiian god it depicts and the story behind that god. I'd also like to know if there is a difference between the Tiki in the top picture and the bottom picture. Thanks.

Any ideas? It is associated with a place called Tiki Village in Australia. The original resort burnt down but I'm not sure if the original Tiki carving was destroyed as well. Is it possible this is just a generic Tiki carving and not intended to resemble any of the Hawaiian gods specifically?

It is not based on any Hawaiian Tiki gods.

On 2015-06-21 01:21, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
It is not based on any Hawaiian Tiki gods.

Thanks for that. Do you have any idea what this Tiki carving may be trying to represent? Perhaps the Maori version of Tiki?

Here is a thread about Daydream Island and the Tiki Village Motel. The tiki you are asking about is shown in one of the postcards. Most likely the statue was the result of the artist imagination loosely based on a Polynesian design but that's just my opinion.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=33707&forum=2

On 2015-06-21 03:59, uncle trav wrote:
Here is a thread about Daydream Island and the Tiki Village Motel. The tiki you are asking about is shown in one of the postcards. Most likely the statue was the result of the artist imagination loosely based on a Polynesian design but that's just my opinion.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=33707&forum=2

Thanks so much for that link. That thread describes two separate Tiki holiday destinations in Australia. One in north Queensland and one in south Queensland. The Tiki I was referring to is/was in south Queensland in a city called Gold Coast, or more specifically a suburb named Surfers Paradise. From the information gathered in that thread and a quick look on Google Maps, it would appear the stone Tiki is still present to this day at the end of Cavill Avenue.

I'm sure someone on this forum would have revealed who that Tiki carving was intended to represent by now so I can only assume it is a generic Tiki that isn't specific to any Polynesian belief system. Having said that, the old Tiki Village in Surfers Paradise was Hawaiian themed so it would be fair to say that if it was going to represent anything then it would be the Hawaiian version of Tiki culture. I've become quite interested in the mythology behind it all recently and in particular this statue.

I'm not sure if that particular Tiki was imported from Hawaii but I am familiar with Pele's curse and I do wonder if perhaps there is a link there between the old resort burning down and the Tiki that has a Hawaiian link. Maybe there is a real story behind it burning down but there was a reincarnation of the resort that came a few years later and you might notice the Tiki statue is slightly altered in the picture in the original post of this thread. I'm probably looking into it too much and maybe making some people uncomfortable but Bernie Elsey, who built the original Tiki Village in Surfers Paradise, ended up dying of cancer and another Gold Coast developer, Christopher Skase, who also had a link with Hawaii (Princeville), ended up also dying of cancer.

It's the mythology of it all that has me interested and the fact that the Tiki still stands to this day is very interesting. I know the Maori mythology says that Tiki was lonely and ended up creating a woman from his own reflection in the water. Again, I'm probably looking into this too much but you might notice that the the Tiki is facing its back to the river. Basically what I'm saying is that, according to the Maori mythology, a Tiki would be desperate to find a companion in the water but has his back facing the river and can't his reflection. Instead, this Tiki witnessed the village burning down. I'm almost definitely looking into it too much but is it possible that some form of curse has been placed on the city because of the events that took place and the fact that the Tiki continues to face its back to the river?

There's nothing Hawaiian or Maori about that tiki. At all...

Buzzy Out!

On 2015-06-21 09:25, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
There's nothing Hawaiian or Maori about that tiki. At all...

Buzzy Out!

What is it then? Like previously mentioned in this thread, could it just have been an Australian artist giving his/her impression of what a Tiki looks like and ended up botching it?

A great number of the iconic Tiki images were created by a designer or artist's imagination. Were the tikis made to represent real gods from Polynesian legend? No. As long as they looked primitive and mysterious and created a feeling of escaping the everyday grind of the urban jungle they filled the bill. I don't think these carvings are botched. They represent a totally fake world that came to a head in the late fifties and into the sixties. A world that allowed everyday folks to become savage and escape the real world for a few hours. Many threads here on TC tell the story of how this fake world came to be as well as many of the Polynesian legends and stories that so many drew on for inspiration to build that world and make some serious cash while they were at it. The best way to start digging into the history of this is with reading any or all of Sven's books.

So there we have it - we're a bunch of fakers faking our way through a fake fenomenon...

:drink:

in my opinion it is a mashup of influences ...marquesan tiki for the body and the face has the sharp jeweled eyes of a Maori design.

also interesting are the hieroglyphs. I'm reading a 1930s book on Polynesian culture and the author makes analogies to ancient Egypt falling just short of directly linking them.

Looks kinda like the "Hawaiian Eye" Tiki mashed up with a Moai, to me.