Our Taonga

Each award was carved of Pounamu (Nephrite).  Pounamu develops in the extraordinary environment of tectonic plate movement where metamorphic stone and volcanic stone reform. 

The strong spiritual connection Māori have with pounamu is reflected in the way the various stone types were named.  Each pounamu type was given an identity that corresponded to the world Māori lived in, such as being named after native birds, fish or plants, while others are linked to pakiwaitara  (storytelling) and others linked to specific locations across the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, where it surfaced.

In the ancient and revered Te Ao Māori tradition, notable pieces of pounamu were gifted to persons of high rank who were esteemed by their people for their skills and leadership.  If, for example, it were a toki poutangata (a ceremonial adze used for first cuts on timber for canoes or houses), it would stay in the keeping of the tohunga whakairo and eventually be placed with the body of the owner when they passed away.  In tradition, after a period of time, the body would be cleared of all remaining flesh and covered with red ochre (a colour symbolised as sacred by Te Ao Māori) before burial. 

The adze head would be removed and passed on to others, perhaps for several generations, sometimes until the stone had been sharpened so many times that it could no longer be hafted.  It would then be recarved into a hei tiki (a neck adornment of a human figure) and continue its journey through future generations gaining whakapapa, mana and enormous prestige.  It may be named and have its own wairua and dignity.  A journey that might have literally been to the grave and back many times.    

Our prestigious Māori artists incorporated the seven settlement canoes of Aotearoa New Zealand’s second settlement phase as most Māori can whakapapa back to these as their own heritage.  These canoes were Aotea, Kurahaupō, Mataatua, Tainui, Tokomaru, Te Arawa and Tākitimu.  Seven endemic native timbers were selected to represent these canoes or waka, that are now heading out into the world representing our various awards.  These timbers; Totara, Swamp Kauri, Rimu, Puriri, Rewarewa, Maire and Pohutakawa, form the bases for each stunning and unique Taonga Pounamu award.

The New Zealand Hydrogen Council’s logo is easily linked to traditional forms of Māori design, including pekapeka and koropitou. 

For each of the four unique pounamu organisation awards, two manaia (kaitiaki or guardians) represent two hydrogen molecules of water within a Rauponga (spiral).  These eyes of the carvings incorporating red wax, commonly used by Māori as a symbol of the sacred, using a post European traditional wax method as Māori did when sealing wax in hei tiki.  The red manaia also implying the special characteristics of hydrogen in its abundance and its use on the journey to protecting the world in which we now live.      

The two stunningly beautiful individual awards were uniquely carved and made to be both displayed and worn by the bearer.  These truly beautiful pounamu Taonga Pounamu were designed to pass on to be worn by each recipient, in itself creating its own whakapapa as each award becomes imbued with the mana of a growing list of people of high achievement who have received the award.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, nephrite forms in the company of serpentine, another stone carved by Māori and considered a mother stone to Nephrite.  With this our carvers prepared a momentous gift to Linda for the Hydrogen Council.  Taking a natural boulder of serpentine they carved a beautiful bowl.  The inside of the bowl contains three carved eyes, two red eyes and one blue paua eye to represent the symbol of water, to be submerged in the water. The bowl holds.

This gift, a Mauri stone, is a talisman, effigy or symbol of the vitality of a person, place, or thing.  The symbol of the hidden vitality and life principle of, in this instance, not only the stone, but also of the Hydrogen Council.  It is an anchor stone, the home place that all other Taonga would belong and return to.  An ancient stone placed on a piece of swamp kauri, a tree, that may itself have been 20,000 years old before calamity struck it down.  It has been preserved on the swamps of Northland for potentially 40,000 years.  People are encouraged to touch the stone and to bless themselves with the water.

The Aotearoa Hydrogen Awards and the Taonga that represent them are not only demonstrating connectedness to the past by honouring the ancient and revered skills, crafts and traditions of Te Ao Māori, but they are strongly delivering a symbol and a pathway forward to the innovation and skills of today. 

These are our Taonga that directly whakapapa to an event in our time.  When the story is told about their creation, the reason for crafting these stones will bear the ancient component and the story behind their genesis connects them to the 21st Century.  These awards are building a bridge between the modern and the ancient and celebrating our success as we create our future.