Two people have been found guilty in a landmark case marking the first conviction for trying to illegally export pounamu out of the country.
Legally, raw pounamu weighing up to 5kg can be taken out of the country without consent.
But the mother and son pair, Boyuan Zhang and Xin Li, were caught at Auckland Airport in July 2024 trying to board a flight to China with just under 18kg of the sacred stone in their bag.
Judge Richard McIlraith said while it was not the duo’s intent to breach the law, they had been “casual and cavalier” in their attitudes.
“Ignorance is no defence.”
Pounamu is of the utmost importance to Ngāi Tahu - considered a taonga by the iwi for hundreds of years.
Revered Ngāi Tahu rangatira Tā Tipene O’Regan told the Herald pounamu was more than just a stone - “it is heritage, identity and place”.
“It is unique to us; it is a core element of our being.
“More than any other material thing, it ties us to our origins in Te Waipounamu.”
Indeed, the name Te Waipounamu, in reference to the South Island, means the pounamu waters. The sacred stone is only found in certain parts of the South Island.
In 1997, the ownership of the stone was officially returned to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu via legislation following the iwi’s settlement with the Crown.
Within Ngāi Tahu, different rūnanga represent different areas of the South Island. Poutini Ngāi Tahu, in reference to two Ngāi Tahu rūnanga based on the West Coast, are considered the kaitiaki or guardians of pounamu.
Te Rūnanga o Ngati Waewae chairman Francois Tumahai said the iwi were frustrated with people breaching the already generous 5kg threshold for taking the stone out of New Zealand and would be discussing whether the allowance should be removed entirely.
That threshold had been a cause for debate among the tribe for years, he said.
“Even the judge mentioned it, why is there even any stone leaving the country?”
His message for people considering taking pounamu illegally was: “we are coming and we are going to get you … and don’t be surprised when we do”.
“Once this [the court case] is done, there is going to be quite a flood of stuff happening on the ground,” he said.
“Because of this, we can now resource up in terms of people on the ground monitoring and the relationships with police.”
Tumahai said he wants the iwi to be given compliance powers so they can visit mining sites and other areas for audit checks.
“All I’ve been chasing for years is compliance powers … we issue warrants to Joe Bloggs to go and give parking tickets to freedom campers out here every week, so why can’t we get some compliance powers to visit mine sites? “
A guilty verdict means the iwi can “draw a line in the sand” and “basically say, you can’t do this, this isn’t right”.
“It will set a precedent, so we want to get it right … and actually get the right one. This one was pretty clear because they were Chinese nationals and they don’t own the stone, they weren’t given it by their grandparents … it was very clear they were just taking it out of the country to profit from.
“That’s why we have basically targeted this one.”
This prosecution is indeed a unique case, involving the iwi and Customs, that dates back to July 2024, when the pair were caught.
Customs Minister Casey Costello said she would be willing to consider requests from the iwi to remove the 5kg threshold and require all takings of raw stone to have consent.
“It does seem high to me,” she said.
“Since 2012, we’ve had 18 intercepts. We are pretty confident that we are capturing it. Of that 18 intercepts, most of them related to just lack of awareness.”
When Customs seized pounamu, it worked with Ngāi Tahu hapū to identify where the stone had come from in the South Island and return it.
Paul Madgwick, chair of Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio, said pounamu was the “heart and soul” of his people.
“We are Poutini Ngāi Tahu from the West Coast, we are the kaitiaki of the taonga, this taonga was fought for by our ancestors, and they subjugated the previous tribe, Ngāti Wairangi, who had control of pounamu for several centuries, and there were some really bloody wars that were fought for this taonga.”
“Pounamu has a whakapapa and it does have a mauri of its own and a lot of people don’t understand that. But I think many of those that do work the stone do understand that it has a mauri so they don’t tutu with it, they don’t tutu with that mauri but some people do they just don’t care so they are the ones we are hoping to catch.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.