Te mwae te nikabono

Te mwae te nikabono. Neck ornament of conus shells. This te mwae (Neck ornament) consists of 17 nouo (conus shells) segments strung onto light brown te kora (coconut sennit) and tied together at the ends. Each segment has been sliced off from the base of the nouo shell creating a flat disc shape that is slightly convex on the outer surface and has the raised spiral ridges of the shell visible on the reverse side. The nouo shells are off-white in colour with natural dark spiralled speckling. A perforation at the side edge of each of these shells has been drilled for te kora to thread through. Two white kingking (egg cowrie shells) are attached with fibre strands to the nikabono.