Sunday, March 16, 2014

Pounamu An Oral geography



Every living thing in the Maori world view has a god watching over it and a spiritual being who embodies and protects the resource. In the case of pounamu the Atua (or god) of Pounamu is Ngahue, he appointed a taniwha (spiritual being) named Poutini to be the guardian of this resource.

Now Poutini was a bit of a mischief, his natural enemy was another taniwha called Whaiapu. This taniwha was the guardian spirit of sandstone, the only thing that could cut greenstone. These two often fought and chased each other around the islands known to us as Aotearoa. One day Whaiapu was chasing Poutini around the Bay of Plenty and Poutini took refuge on an island in that bay.



Whilst hiding there he spied a beautiful wahine (woman) named Waitaiki bathing in the sea, lust took over his sensibilities and he snatched the woman and ran away. Naturally this enraged her husband Tamaahua who jumped in his waaka and gave chase.

So Poutini was now being pursued by a taniwha and an enraged husband! He moved from place to place across the land and sea, stopping at night to light a campfire. Each place became known as a source of stone hardened by the flames of Poutini’s campfire (or possibly his lust for Waitaiki).
At the site of the original abduction, his fire left behind obsidian, in the Coromandel peninsula the stone left behind was basalt, this became the stone used for making adzes. Continuing the chase to Rangitoto, the stone left behind was argillite.


Eventually Poutini made his way down to the West Coast of the South Island. Near Punakaiki his fire left behind flint. As far south as Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) he travelled with his captive who shed tears when she arrived in that isolated place. Her tears turned into Bowenite, a glassy green stone that is highly prized for making jewellery.
Now Poutini had with him a wailing woman leaving stones of grief in her wake which gave clues to her husband who was still in hot pursuit. With the husband closing in on him, Poutini knew that the game was almost up but still he didn’t want to release Waitaiki.
When he reached the Arahura River, Poutini decided that if he could not have this woman then no one would and he turned her into greenstone, hiding her in the riverbed before slipping past his pursuers and swimming out to sea.
Then Tamaahua arrived and found his wife hidden in the river bed. He began reciting karakia (incantations) to restore her to her human life but to no avail.
Now the Arahura River is known to hold the finest greenstone and to this day Poutini swims up and down the coastline of the island known to Maori as Te Tai o Pounamu (the tides of Poutini) protecting his precious stone.


LINK : http://blog.authenticgreenstone.com/tracing-pounamu/

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