Tahiri ra'a (fly whisk)

Sparkling disks of polished pearl shell, once attached to this fly whisk, would have flashed and jangled when the tahiri was spun, summoning the gods from the dark reaches of te pō (the ancestral realm) into the light of te ao, the world of humans. During rituals, priests would vigorously fan the whisks to accompany the steady beat of chants. When turned, the elegant double figure on the finial becomes a single figure in motion, its four pairs of tapered feet delicately sidestepping around the central axis.