Pounamu

What is Pounamu?

/pəʊˈnɑːmuː/

Pounamu is a special stone that is considered a taonga (treasure) from the land (Aotearoa, New Zealand). It is treasured, highly prized with special significance both cultural and spiritual to Māori. It has a long and unique history. Some examples of use in the past has been weapons for war and symbols of peace. It is also used for adornment and to denote status and authority. 

It is a variety of jade or greenstone.

The majority of the pounamu that you see on our website were sourced with iwi (tribal) consent from Te Waipounamu (South Island, New Zealand). There are 3 awa (river) that the pounamu are found.

Where do we source our Pounamu?

Manny  (our carver) has a studio based in Kirikiriroa. She works with these taonga and can whakapapa back to the iwi.  This means that she was allowed to apply for a contract to receive the pounamu.  There are 3 different types of pounamu.

She has a contract for each type of pounamu and her pounamu is direct from the iwi.  There is no middle person.

Manny begins and ends each session with karakia. 

The raw pounamu pieces first sit in water.  Once they've been in the water and been cleaned.  The edges are either hand shaped or by using a disc grinder.  Then unless the pieces are being 'wrapped', she will add a hole for the binding.

Once the pieces have been fashioned, she will either leave them with or without a coating of polish.

From there she will begin the process of binding and for some pieces adding a toggle.