Wooden tiki stela, 164cm tall, acquired by the Papeete Museum in 1928, from the Taipivai Valley, on Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, in the Musee de Tahiti et des Iles, or Te Fare Manaha, at Punaauia, on the island of Tahiti, in the Windward Islands, Society Islands, French Polynesia. Tikis are protective statues representing Ti’i, a half-human half-god ancestor who is believed to be the first man. The Museum of Tahiti and the Islands was opened in 1974 and displays collections of nature and anthropology, habitations and artefacts, social and religious life and the history of French Polynesia. Picture by Manuel Cohen