On November 12, 2025, a dozen NSCAD students, and two Mi’kmaq elder guests had the honour of welcoming visiting artist Te Kaha from Aotearoa New Zealand to NSCAD University in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki.
Te Kaha is a master pounamu practitioner, educator and spokesperson who has honed his skillset and craft over three decades. His repertoire includes hei tiki pounamu, hei taona, mere pounamu, patu pounamu, patu onewa, and large scale toki and hei matau. Te Kaha’s pounamu pieces have gained a reputation nationally and internationally for their beautiful finish, balance and mauri. His pounamu are held in private collections in Aotearoa and overseas. Te Kaha has worked extensively overseas in Europe, Asia and the UK as well as in Aotearoa presenting wānana pounamu and exhibiting his collections.
Student Sparrow Granite, in her final semester in NSCAD’s Jewellery and Metalsmithing Post Baccalaureate (studio discipline) Certificate program was one of the NSCAD students who attended his workshop. She agreed to write this reflection on her experience.
A Journey Through Stone, Story, and Soul
Te Kaha’s workshop left an impression on me that I will carry far into the future. In his presence, learning was not passive but embodied; we chanted in unison and rhythm, moved and breathed together, stepping into the history and power of the haka. It was an experience both cerebral and visceral, calling us back to community, to the self, and to the ancient pulse of storytelling that binds all people to their roots.
Te Kaha guided us gently yet commandingly, grounding us in tradition while opening doors to new understanding. Under his guidance, we learned that pounamu – the revered green stone of New Zealand, akin to jade yet entirely its own – is never merely adornment.
Found only in the land from which its stories arise, pounamu is shaped with intention, patience, and communal spirit. Each piece, whether shark tooth like, crescent, or round as the moon, carries meaning in the many different communities known to us as Māori (Māori translates to natural human).
Te Kaha shared ancestral knowledge and taught us that in his culture via his people’s heritage, nothing is without purpose; the stone chooses you as much as you choose it, reflecting life circumstances, personal journey, and the memory of those who came before. The process of sanding until its true colours emerge is one of reflection, ritual, and connection, a practice shared, never rushed.
Between chants, movement, laughter, and learning, we came to understand pounamu not as jewellery but as living archive of land, water, ancestors, identity, community, belonging and as a way to inform our living experience.
Te Kaha reminded us that authenticity lies in origin and care: to know a true stone, one should ask from which water did it come, and whose hands honoured it into form? Ours was gifted from the Kura Tau river (Kura, an old name for the colour red, and Tau, to settle, referring to a pinkish-red hue that comes off the waterfalls at the river’s headwater) and was given to us by Te Kaha himself, a patient storyteller who made the unfamiliar feel in reach and drew us into a realm where art and life are one and the same.
The workshop left us not merely informed but transformed. We return to our daily lives soothed in spirit, expanded in understanding, and grateful for a glimpse into a culture rich with history, reverence, and connection. It was, undoubtedly, a rare and lasting gift, one we will carry forward physically as we gift the pounamu we shaped to another and within our own story and spirit.
This event is presented as part of NSCAD’s Visiting Artist program, supported by the Daglish Family Foundation Visiting Artist Fund.
