CARVER and graphic designer Julian Bailey says the stone pakohe he works with comes from the Whanganui River, which is his inspiration steeped in the history of his ancestors.
"The awa is the realm of my tribe. We can travel from Putiki to the maunga Ruapehu and feel at home."
Mr Bailey
says he is lucky to have found pakohe and when he started working with it, there was no other cultural icon of his tribe.
But don't ask where the location is. The very few who do work with the stone have just "found" it.
He first started working with pounamu and bone before he discovered pakohe.
Mr Bailey has been working with pakohe for 15 years and every two years he goes looking for certain pieces. He returns with big rocks from which he carves his fine taonga that many people now wear around their necks.
Taonga are commissioned for different graduations, birthdays or other significant celebrations, and he has just finished making a harakeke knife for weavers.
The carved patterns fit the shape of the kohatu (stone) and all pieces carry his signature that will be as enduring as the pakohe. "These pieces are creating history, that is the buzz. It is a sacred stone and it's forever.
He said each of the pieces will become family heirlooms and carry the story of where it began and where it will end up.
Mr Bailey lives beside the awa at Putiki which he says is the source of peace and tranquillity.
He remembers the tilley lamps of people floundering along its banks at Putiki and the tuna (eels) that hung drying on everyone's lines and fences.
There was an abundance of kai in the village that came from the awa - koura, pipi, tuna, flounders, kahawai and cod.
