Toki Poutangata
The toki poutangata is the ceremonial adze of the Maori, fitted with a blade of pounamu or basalt lashed to a carved wooden handle and hung with a plait of fibre and feathers. Unlike the working adze, the toki poutangata was not used for daily woodwork but was carried before a rangatira and raised in speeches as a badge of chiefly authority, and the finest blades were treasured heirlooms passed down through the great lineages. The name means the adze of the great chief, and the object appears in the ceremonial life of the marae, where the taking up of a toki could mark the acceptance of leader