resource for hawaiian myths and tiki images

Hi there,

I'm hoping someone can help me out and reccommend a book or resource I can use.

Im quite new to tikis and carving and I'd really like to find some traditional images of Hawaiian tikis in particular with the History, stories and legends of the Gods depicted.

I know there are a few books which have been reccommended to other users for images and inspiration;

Oceanic Art
tiki modern
the book of tiki

Im on a bit of a budget at the moment and cant really afford to buy them all to see which one has what Im looking for.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Best wishes
Sutherland Boy

Pictures:
Hawaiian Sculpture

Stories:
The Legends and Myths of Hawaii: The Fables and Folk-Lore of a Strange People

Tiki Modern and Book of Tiki are nice to have, but will not help you in what you're looking for. The Oceanic art one is a good survey book, but doesn't have a very big Hawaiian section.

Buzzy Out!

hey sutherland,

below is a link to the oceanic art book thread. show samples and what books people like....amazon was usually the cheapest buying used copies i found....

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=35924&forum=1&hilite=oceanic art reference

also a quick link to hawaiian god descriptions:

http://www.mythichawaii.com/tiki-history.htm

hope this helps

[ Edited by: Creative Chimp 2010-09-18 09:52 ]

[ Edited by: Creative Chimp 2010-09-18 09:53 ]

I try to find inspiration from museum pieces. I searched the internet for a long time and finally found these images. I don't think much of the authentic stuff survived the missionaries.

http://www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/onexhibit.html

A Hawaiian friend of mine's told me that the Hawaiian tikis(Akua iki) traditionally, are not supposed to be fully naked. They are supposed to have their "malo" or traditional loincloth on which were made of "Kapa"(tapa/tree bark cloth). It was a sign of respecting the akua iki by clothing them. With the arrival of Christianity, converted natives no longer took care of their carved dieties so over time of long neglect, the malo eventually decayed leaving behind any naked aumakua iki that survived the christian abolishment. That is why, any aumakua iki that were found by interested explorers & archeologists, are shown with no malo.

However, there are some that have remnants of malo wrapped around the waists which were found in ancient burial caves or lava tubes. Being very superstitious of the afterlife, ancient Hawaiians were buried with things that they deemed neccessary for the afterlife. For instance, I am told of an acient burial lavatube cave of a man who must've been a great seaman. Found along with the body which was wrapped with remnants of Kapa & Lauhala(Pandanus) mats, there was a Koa canoe, a couple of paddles, a bunch of ancient fish hooks, some wooden calabashes/bowls, a stone poi pounder, and a few aumakua iki carved images.

Hey thanks for all your advice and for taking the time to help out. Theres some really interesteing stuff there!

Theres quite some reading/digging to do and im looking forward to gettign down to it.

Will post the results when Im done carving.

Best wishes to all
Sutherland boy

nb. Really interesting about the Malo, I know that the Tibetan Buddhists also dress their religious statues out of respect.