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Bone carvings have a very special feel about them, unlike anything else you will ever experience. Their milky white appearance and soft flowing lines are just the start. They are soft and warm to the touch yet the finish is like polished glass, they seem to blend with your body and become a part of you, especially when worn as a pendent against your skin. Over a period of time bone carvings absorb oils from your skin and change colour to a very light honey gold. The Maori believe this to be the carving taking on some of your spirituality or essence and thus truly becoming a part of the wearer.
Whenever men and women came together around a fire for celebration, there would be fire, and there would be drumming. Drumming and fire just belong together!
At long last we have found a source of quality drums at a cost that won't break the bank. We have had them "tested and approved" by drummers, so you can be confident when you purchase these items.
All our Jade items are carved from genuine New Zealand Pounamu (Jade, or Greenstone) sourced from the South Island of New Zealand.
Pounamu is a tough, hard wearing and very beautiful stone that has deep spiritual meaning to the Maori people. Pounamu is considered a gift from the gods, and great mana (spiritual power) is attached to the pounamu carvings which were associated with chieftainship and often used as peace gifts to seal a pact or to provide protection to a person, dwelling or village.
Pounamu items are traditionally gifted to persons to provide them with good luck and increase their spiritual health/power. Kept for yourself, the good luck turns to bad�
We present these items to our Home of Poi community because we know you are in tune with your spiritual side and in many cases you want to provide the gift of spiritual wellbeing to others. Since these items are associated with our art-form�s origins, we believe they will be of great interest to our community members and customers.
About our Maori Wood Carvings |
The ancestors of New Zealand Maori brought with them a priceless legacy of knowledge and technology for the art of carving. With an abundance of majestic trees at their fingertips, craftsmen were in a plentiful position, but even so, no tree was felled without paying respect to Tane, God of the Forests, with an appropriate prayer (karakia).
In legend, Tanemahuta (Tane) is both ancestor of the trees and ancestor of mankind. This connection makes the native trees our relatives, and so deserving of a special respect. To anger Tane was to invite harm on yourself or your family. Mother Earth, and the trees which clothe her, are seen as permanent and lasting in this interwoven mystical world. One's own being is seen as temporary and mortal by comparison.
Woodcarving was a means of representing the mythology and geneology of this world. A love for carving human forms was born from a value system of deep, sentimental, ancestral reverence and connection with family. Maori ancestors gave descendants their name and tribal rights to lands, forests and fishing. Wood carvings were named after these forebears and given special powers. The very first piece created by a new carver was always given away to appease the gods.
Our carvings are made using renewable woods to preserve both the history of carving and the forests of Aotearoa New Zealand.
