Waka Huia
A Maori treasure box
Pacific Islands Room
Showcasing one of the most treasured pieces of art or artifacts on the Hilton Waikoloa Village Museum Walkway.
Origin
Date/
Period
Materials
Meaning
Aotearoa/New Zealand
c. 1780-1860
Carved wood, identified as matai wood
Built to hold important cultural treasures
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Read the full story below
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Handcrafted by master carvers, Waka Huia were created to hold the taonga - treasures - of high-ranking Māori chiefs in New Zealand. The elaborate carvings have deep spiritual significance, and Waka Huia are considered living ancestors today rather than merely objects of art or artifacts. The taonga most associated with the Waka Huia were the feathers of the extinct Huia bird, which are now the most valuable in the world.
Waka Huia - Maori Treasure Box
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THE STORY
This is a lovely example of a waka huia (sometimes spelled wakahuia, and often called a "feather box" even though it held more than feathers), one of the great small-scale forms of Māori carving.
What it was for. Waka huia were personal treasure boxes made to hold a person's most prized and often most tapu (sacred/restricted) possessions — things like hei-tiki pendants, carved combs, and especially the prized tail feathers of the huia bird, which were worn in the hair by people of high rank. Because so many of these contents had been in contact with the head — the most tapu part of the body in Māori tradition — the boxes themselves took on real spiritual weight. They were treated as taonga (treasures) in their own right, often given as gifts between families or hapū to mark important relationships or events, and were curated and carved with the same care as a chief's own regalia. Their name comes from their shape — "waka" meaning canoe/vessel, describing the elongated, hull-like oval form — which distinguishes them from the flatter, rectangular papa hou boxes carved mainly in the north.
ON YOUR MAP
This is stop 2 on your Walkway Highlights Tour
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Next Stop: Han Dynasty Food Processing Structure
Just a short walk ahead in the Main Lobby
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