This is a unique hand built mug designed after the stern (taurapa) of a Maori canoe. Carved for the 2016 Tiki Central Maori Art Swap. The elaborately carved taurapa would have once stood vertically at the stern of a great waka taua (war canoe). To carve a waka taua took great skill, and canoe-makers acquired great mana (prestige) and reputations as priests and craftsmen for their ritual and technical expertise. These qualities were seen as inseparable and would have been highly desirable in the construction of waka taua, which were imbued with spiritual significance during the transportation of warriors over great distances. On one side of the mug is the Maori twist or Pikorua (in white), which resembles two interwined pikopiko ferns. The entanglement has no beginning or end which refers to an eternal bond and how individuals sometimes go their own way on their path of life but always come back together because of their strong bond.