Master carver Te Kaha comes to Raw Coffee Company with his history and much more and Ipshita Sharma meets him to tell us more…
New Zealand or Aerotera as it has always been known by the first people of the land, has had a long and storied heritage. The Maori, much like many indigenous people, believe that all of nature’s gifts are linked to an energy that connects all of us born from the earth.
One of these amazing gifts and a piece of history and indeed part of their ancestry is New Zealand’s version of jade called Pounamu. Pieces carved out of this stone is carried through generations of families.
Master carver Te Kaha was recently in Dubai doing a workshop at the Raw Coffee Company in Al Quoz where he spoke about the amazing history of this stone and how it is more important than ever to look at how we human beings are all connected.
Te Kaha is an amazing man, from his tattoos to the wisdom he radiates and the casual bits of knowledge he leaves you with. We’re still buzzing with his stories and his point of view. He starts our conversation with asking us not to record him until he understood our point of view. Our conversation started with not wanting to call holistic and nature-led thinking as alternative. “We’re so turned around. What is natural cannot be alternative, that is the original way of thinking and it is the newer, non-natural ways that should be called alternative”
As people around the world get attuned with nature, they crave more authentic experiences. This means that people are reaching out to the source of various flavours, handicrafts and even clothing to understand the significance behind it all. But this greater demand has also resulted in the rise of unscrupulous trading of Pounamu in New Zealand.
Only a special kind of jade found in the Southern island of New Zealand is allowed to be called Pounamu. All other wannabes are called greenstone. There is a big market in these greenstone that are carved in China and it is often very difficult to tell them apart. But Te Kaha says there’s two very simple questions to ask to understand if what you’re buying is real Pounamu, “Ask them which river it comes from and who is the carver. And if they say the carver doesn’t want to be known or they cannot tell you the river’s name because of any reasons, you’ll have your answer! No carver will want anonymity, that’s like expecting a movie star to not put his name on a movie!”
Pounamu is more than just a kind of jade though, it is thought of being one of the ancestors, much like everything of the earth is an ancestor. It carries the weight of history, the magic of a civilisation that is still surviving through the chaos of many centuries. The stone has been used by the Maori for practical purposes like tool sharpening, fish hooks, knives, spearheads and even for trade with tribes that didn’t have them and to tell stories through the carvings.
Pounamu has to be passed down through generations and it is said they carry the energy of those they have been with. All of these stories and more is what Te Kaha shares with us and all those who came to his workshop. He starts every workshop with a small prayer to mother earth and our ancestors, “after all we all came from people who worked with stone. No matter where we grew up, our ancestors at one time worked with stones and with a small prayer, we ask for them to work with us and fashion our Pounamu so that it truly becomes a part of the person who is working on it.”
He then gives each participant a Pounamu blindly from a bag and an idea on what to create, the rest he leaves to the participant. He says that he’s only the messenger of the Pounamu, the stone finds its home and its story.
This experience and conversation brought alive for us the concepts of how everything is connected through a natural energy and rhythm. How we are an amalgamation of all that has come before us and how we are the storykeepers for those coming after us. More important than anything, Te Kaha’s ability of letting these Pounamu go into worthy hands is a true example of selflessness and letting go of treasures that is truly exemplary to see.