Te Rere Hawaiian Knife

I

Ijfleming

Joined
Feb 13, 2007
Messages
78
So I was at my parent's home for a day as I retured from a holiday when I found a knife my mother got for me when she was in Hawaii.. It's called a "Te Rere". (Sorry the photo of the overall knife is blurry..)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/Ian34280/other/Weapons/TeRere1.jpg

The "blade" is about 16 cm (little over 6") long, and it weighs next to nothing.. Haven't dared cut anything out of fear of breaking it, but it could probably create a nasty surface would. The teeth are wedged in there pretty tight, but I wouldn't think it could cut much else apart from soft tissue. The guard is cocanut, the handle covered with a palm leaf, and it's all made with palm wood.

I can't help but have a nagging feeling that this is a tourist ripoff, but it sure does make a nice conversation piece.
 
From the looks of it i wouldnt try cutting anything with it. And from what I see, in my own honest opinion, it looks like your nagging feeling is correct.
 
Check this out...From the Waikato Museum in Hamilton, New Zealand's website:

"The people of Kiribati seem to be fond of shark's teeth, as they are also responsible for the "te rere" or fighting sword. About the size of a knife, it appears fragile but is capable of inflicting serious injury. As the attacker raises the te rere, the defendant instinctively raises his arm in protection. The attacker then has access to slash the soft underarm. A larger te rere would have more mature shark's teeth and is capable of cutting to the bone."

Ain't that somethin'?
 
marcinek said:
Check this out...From the Waikato Museum in Hamilton, New Zealand's website:

"The people of Kiribati seem to be fond of shark's teeth, as they are also responsible for the "te rere" or fighting sword. About the size of a knife, it appears fragile but is capable of inflicting serious injury. As the attacker raises the te rere, the defendant instinctively raises his arm in protection. The attacker then has access to slash the soft underarm. A larger te rere would have more mature shark's teeth and is capable of cutting to the bone."

Ain't that somethin'?
Click to expand...

hm, that is rather suprising.. maybe it's worth making a better display rach for it after all. Thanks!
 
I live in Hawaii but I'm not a native Hawaiian. The name "Te Rere" is likely not Hawaiian. It may be Maori (New Zealand native people). In Hawaiian it would be spelled Ke Lele and might translate to "The flyer or leaper" probably indicative of the fast slashing action of such a weapon.

The Hawaiian art of fighting is called Lua and incorporates many types of weapons, some of them armed with shark teeth. The weapon that is similar to the Te Rere is the Lei-o-Mano (literally Lei <circle or necklace> of Mano <shark>).

The shape is more like a flat club or paddle with shark teeth imbedded along the edge.

I've include some links that show illustrations of the weapon.

Strictly from the looks of the Te Rere shown, it seems to be a tourist souvenir rather than an actual weapon. Certainly the colorful cord wraps have no relation to the dyes available to the early Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders.

This is just my opinion and I defer to wiser heads.

JimFBtE

http://www.olohe.com/weapons/lei-o-mano.html
http://www.mythichawaii.com/weapons.htm
 
jimfbte said:
It may be Maori (New Zealand native people).
Click to expand...

Te Rere certainly sounds like a Maori word to me too, although I've never seen a weapon like that.

Could indeed be from the Kiribati as posted above.

Maori weaponry tend to be mostly impact devices made out of wood, whale bone, or pounamu (greenstone/jade) stone, like for example the Mere/Patu and Taihaha. http://whakaahua.maori.org.nz/weapons1.htm

Haven't seen any out of shark teeth like that, but I don't know.
 
I like the shark tooth club on the Hawaii weapons site, looks like it would do some damage.
 
Ijfleming,

No offense intended. It's a great souvenir from a fondly remembered trip, I'm sure.

I noted that the plaque mentioned an independence date of 12 July 1979. According to wikipedia, that is the date of independence for the island nation of Kiribati (pronounced "ki-ri-bass") in the south Pacific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati

Someone took care to create the item, mount it on cardboard and inscribe relevant data on it. It may well be a tourist souvenir, but it could have been an earnest gift a native person made to present to a foreign friend as a reminder of a proud Kiribati nation.

IMHO, it may not be a "real" weapon, but it IS a real memento that your mother treasured.

JimFBtE
 
jimfbte said:
Ijfleming,

No offense intended. It's a great souvenir from a fondly remembered trip, I'm sure.

I noted that the plaque mentioned an independence date of 12 July 1979. According to wikipedia, that is the date of independence for the island nation of Kiribati (pronounced "ki-ri-bass") in the south Pacific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati

Someone took care to create the item, mount it on cardboard and inscribe relevant data on it. It may well be a tourist souvenir, but it could have been an earnest gift a native person made to present to a foreign friend as a reminder of a proud Kiribati nation.

IMHO, it may not be a "real" weapon, but it IS a real memento that your mother treasured.

JimFBtE
Click to expand...

No offense was taken :)
 
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