Biography

Te Kaha is one of New Zealand’s most influential and respected contemporary pounamu carvers.

The artist has been working with greenstone for the past two decades and his respect for the stone is obvious both in the way he works and in the beauty of the finished product.

Te Kaha’s creations display a fluidity of form and line more commonly seen in early hand-made examples of pounamu carving - especially Hei Tiki and Hei Matau. He believes that understanding pounamu is both a learned and inherited ability and his work over the past couple of decades means that he has honed his knowledge and skill into a fine art.

 “The work I do with Pounamu involves translating a thought, a whakaaro, into a Taonga (Treasure). I work the Pounamu as did my tipuna, to hold the energy, the essence of the concept within the design.” Te Kaha

Pounamu is only found on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand and appears in many varying colours and with many varying characteristics. Only Nephrite from New Zealand is Pounamu, it differs from Jade (Jadeite) which is a stone that does not occur naturally in this country. Most of the names for Pounamu have been lost through colonisation. However Kawakawa, Inanga and Kahurangi are examples of names still in use today.
Find out more about Te Kaha at www.tekahapounamu.com