What are Toki?
Brought to Aotearoa through the ancestral knowledge of Polynesian stone workers, the study of Toki has been critical for studying population migration. The variability in function and design features between different artefacts tell researchers a story of resource availability, manufacture development, innovation, and pre-industrial technology.
How were toki used?
Toki usually functioned somewhat similarly to an axe, but unlike axes, the cutting edge was perpendicular to the shaft of the haft, rather than in parallel. Toki usually have one bevel, located on the back surface; unlike axes which had two bevels (Buck 1950).
The Polynesian ancestors of Māori brought the knowledge of stone working with them when they arrived in Aotearoa. Due to its origin from the continental crust, Aotearoa had more diverse stone sources than those used for toki manufacture elsewhere in the Pacific. These ancestors quickly adapted their stone working knowledge to utilise the stone sources they found available across the motu to produce stone tools. Toki were made throughout Aotearoa to fulfil woodworking tasks, with some stone sources, such as Nelson/Marlborough argillite and Tahanga basalt.
Dante Bonica using a toki to shape a waka. Turner Archive, Anthropology, University of Auckland. All rights reserved.
Where are toki found?
Toki are also found throughout the Pacific, including Polynesia, Melanesia, and Island Southeast Asia. Archaeologists have studied toki as a technological marker of the migration of populations ancestral to Polynesians and Māori.
Toki are also found in other world locations, including the Pacific Northwest of North America (Coast Salish peoples), Northern Europe and Egypt. This indicates that toki technology was also developed independently in other world locations to perform similar tasks.
Pacific Toki
Landmarks of a toki
The haft is the handle of the toki. The top of the toki is the butt end. The butt is where the toki was lashed to the handle. The top of the butt is called the poll (reke). A modified butt is called the grip or the tang. Grip or tang refers explicitly to a butt that has had stone removed from the front and/or lateral sides so that the lashing can be more tightly tied. Laterally tanged toki have shoulders, which are the upper lateral edges of the front of the toki below the tang. Sometimes there are also small projections or knobs of stone known as lugs on either the top of the butt or the shoulders. Lugs also help the haft stay secure. Poll modification is commonly found in heavy, large, thick toki that require more hafting security because they are heavy and used for high-intensity tasks. Where the butt isn't modified, it is often unground/not polished, as this area would be covered with lashing, and the unfinished surface's coarseness would aid adherence of lashing (e.g., Duff 1977:161).
The bottom of the toki has the cutting edge. The cutting edge is the sharp edge of the toki that cuts into wood.
The front of the toki is the part of the toki that faces toward the wood when it is being cut. The front has a blade, the smooth front of the toki leading down the cutting edge. This front may also have the tang/grip modification at the butt end to help tightly lash the toki to the handle.
The back of the toki usually faces the person wielding the toki when the wood is being cut. The back has the bevel. The bevel is the angle between the cutting edge and the back of the toki.
There may sometimes be a bevel on the blade surface as well as the back. A large toki with two bevels is known as a toki titaha and may have been hafted similarly to an axe for wood felling. A small toki with two bevels is known as an oma and was used as a wedge tool; oma did not have poll reduction.
The number of sides – Variation in cross-sectional shape means that a toki may fulfil a different task or that manufacture was adjusted for a specific requirement. Toki may have two (oval cross-section with only front and back), three (triangular cross-section) or four sides (quadrangular cross-section, which means "four sides with four angles", rather than rectangular cross-section which means four sides with right-angled edges and requires high skill to achieve (Buck 1950).
Where a toki was side hafted (that is, the haft was secured to one side of the toki), there is poll reduction (tang) on one lateral side only to allow securing of the haft to one side of the toki. This meant that the cutting edge was placed to one side of the handle and could be used for cutting in tasks.
Tasks and shapes of Aotearoa New Zealand toki
Toki were created in a variety of shapes to assist with woodworking activities, including toki for tree felling, roughing out work, shaping tasks, finishing work, carving, wedges and gouges.
The shape of the toki was influenced by the functional task requirement. This includes the angle, width and curvature of the cutting edge, location of the bevel, weight, proportions (thickness, length and width), and requirement for poll modification. For example, a toki for heavy roughing out tasks might be large, heavy, thick, with poll reduction for hafting security. A toki for finishing tasks might be smaller, thinner, with a sharp cutting edge and with no need for poll reduction due to light weight. A toki for hollowing out tasks may have a curved cutting edge and may be thick with poll modification if used for hollowing out the bottoms of waka or have a narrow body if used for carving.
The properties of stone used for manufacture would also affect the shape of the toki: The size and shape of a blank would affect the finished size and proportions of the toki. The intrinsic properties of the stone, such as hardness, toughness and workability, could affect the manufacturing methods used, which in turn resulted in differing shapes and contours in finished toki.
When they broke, toki would be reworked into new shapes with a different function to preserve valuable toki stone.
[Toki poutangata], 1093611, PH-1958-1-15419. Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Cultural permissions apply.
Archaeologists are aware of the tasks that toki performed for the following reasons:
• Māori traditional knowledge
• Ethnological and historical sources – books that were written in the late 19th century and early 20th century discussing the use of stone tools with Māori informants.
• Archaeological experiments – experiments using toki created by contemporary toki craftspeople to examine task performance and comparing this to the types of toki found in museum and archaeological collections
• Contemporary craftspeople – who either make toki or who use toki for wood working tasks