thursday betty street

My family have remarked on how my concept reminds them of a waka huia (treasure box) which was used by Māori to hold precious adornments such as hei tiki (pendants) and huia feathers for dressing the hair.

I really like the idea of using a roof tile motif (which is strong and substantial when put together in an ordered way) to house a precious object.

Source

Because of this discovery I am interested in working on altering the shape of the vessel. I can't recall anything that exists like these containers within the Koori or Murri cultures in Australia - I have researched it but wasn't surprised that I couldn't find any images. I need to do a little more research around this .