Tiki

By extension, a tiki is a large or small wooden, pounamu or other stone carving in humanoid form, although this is a somewhat archaic usage in the Māori language, where a tiki is usually a hei-tiki, a pendant worn around the neck.

Carvings similar to tiki and coming to represent deified ancestors are found in most Polynesian cultures.

The word has cognates in other Polynesian languages, such as tiʻi in Tahitian and kiʻi in Hawaiian.

In traditions from the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, the first human is a woman created by Tāne, god of forests and of birds.

In some West Coast versions, Tiki himself, as a son of Rangi and Papa, creates the first human by mixing his own blood with clay, and Tāne then makes the first woman.