Bookish Tuesday: Pounamu - the sacred greenstone of New Zealand

By Cindy Williams|@nutritionchic 

 If you have never visited New Zealand the title of ‘The Pounamu Prophecy’ may have you scratching your head. What on earth is pounamu?

 Pounamu is the Maori word for greenstone, a unique type of jade found only in the remote and rugged rivers of the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand. If you walk the spectacular Routeburn track you can see one of the routes Maori took through the treacherous southern mountains to collect pounamu. Imagine carting sacks of stones over steep mountain passes and across swift flowing rivers. No wonder Maori had one of the best physiques in the world!

A Sacred Stone

Pounamu is a sacred stone, often carved into jewellery and treasured by Maori as a sign of status or power. It is a stone one could readily endow with spiritual qualities.

In ‘The Pounamu Prophecy’ Mere gives her pounamu pendant, carved in the shape of a fishing hook, to Helene. Helene knows it is special to Mere and protests.

 ‘But I don’t deserve it.’ 

‘You don’t need to deserve a gift; you just receive it. And then say thank you.’ Mere’s amused scolding lightened the moment. 

‘Thank you, Mere. This is so special. I will wear it always.’ She hung it around her neck. The stone felt cool against her chest. She rubbed its smooth surface. 

‘My grandfather named this stone Rongo, which means peace,' said Mere. 'I used to think the stone gave me peace but I finally realised that it wasn’t the stone, but the maker of the stone.’ 

‘You mean your grandfather?’ 

‘I mean the maker of all stones, trees, people, the universe. God is the one who gives us peace.’

A Stone of Peace

Pounamu is still used today as a treasured gift to promote peace. When my husband’s mother died there was a bitter dispute over where she should be buried. As the eldest son, my husband had to decide what to do. The two tribes argued for a whole day until late at night he called his uncles.

As dramatic as any movie, they drove through the dead of night, stole her body and took her home to her own tribe. After the three day tangi the tribe sent a delegation to the offended tribe, giving them a gift of a large piece of pounamu to restore the tribe's mana (status) and to make peace.


Similarly, my cousin used pounamu as a symbol of peace to honour his brother who was tortured and murdered by the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. In the movie, 'Brother Number One' he drops a treasured piece of pounamu into the sea where the Khmer Rouge had captured him just off the coast of Cambodia.

 A Stone of Strength and Beauty

Pounamu is strong. It can break granite and cut through steel - ideal for use as a tool or weapon. As a child I remember my father wishing he had extended his vegetable garden just a few more feet. Why? Because the new owner found a pounamu mere, a deadly club carved in the shape of a tear drop, a rare and valuable treasure.

Pounamu is smooth and cool and soothing and has a depth of pattern, as though peering into the deepest green waters. It is a reminder of how much our God loves to create beauty in this world. As you read this beautiful Maori blessing allow the peace of our Lord to soothe your mind and calm your heart.

May the calm be widespread

May the surface of the ocean glisten like green stone

And may the shimmer of summer dance across your path forever.

 About Cindy Williams 

With degrees in Nutrition, Public Health and Communication Cindy has worked for many years as a dietitian for sports teams, food industry, media, and as a nutrition writer and speaker.

Her first novel, The Pounamu Prophecy, was short listed for the 2016 Caleb Prize. She writes a blog - www.nutritionchic.com - stories of health, history, food and faraway places.

She lives in Sydney with her husband and son, writing stories of flawed women who battle injustice... and sometimes find romance.

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Wandering Wednesday: Auckland, New Zealand

By Cindy Williams @nutritionchic 

Land of the Long White Cloud

The greenness of New Zealand surprises me every time I return, and then I remember… green means rain. Aotearoa - The Land of the Long White Cloud - is rarely thirsty.

‘Buy a raincoat,’ my friend advised me, when after twelve years overseas I moved back to Auckland. ‘If you want to stay fit, you can’t wait for fine weather.’ That raincoat had a good workout for the year I lived there.

A Prophetic Vision 

Most mornings I jogged around the waterfront, past the trendy cafes of St Heliers, Kohimarama, Mission Bay and up steep steps tucked into the hillside of Bastion Point. Finally at the top, the dew laden grass dusting droplets on my shoes, I would stop to catch my breath and drink in the scene before me – islands, sea and sky - tinged in Monet tones. 

Over two hundred years earlier, the Maori prophet, Titahi, stood on this same hillside and saw a vision of three nautilus shells sailing up the Auckland Harbour. He foretold they would bring both good and trouble. Several years later Captain Cook sailed up the harbour, indeed fulfilling the prophecy. The characters in ‘The Pounamu Prophecy’ are from the same tribe as Titahi, and live on the same land. They too experience the good and the trouble from the arrival of a new people. 

Auckland of a hundred lovers 

The Maori name for Auckland is ‘Tamaki Makaurau’ or ‘Tamaki of a hundred lovers’. Situated on a fertile isthmus, where the Manakau Harbour on the west is little more than a kilometre (3/4 of a mile) from the Waitemata Harbour on the east, it was highly strategic. Tribes fought over the land until, in a move to prosper and protect themselves, the Ngati Whatua chief invited New Zealand’s first British governor to site the capital there. It was 1840. 

Over the next fifty years dubious government deals whittled away their ownership of the land until all that remained was a small village at Okahu Bay. In 1951 the government burned down the houses to 'tidy up'. The novel opens with this scene.

City of Volcanoes

Auckland sits on over fifty dormant volcanoes. The experts say the area could erupt again but no-one seems too worried. Across the lower slopes of these hills houses cluster, sheep graze, people picnic and stroll. 

The last eruption was 600 years ago. It formed Rangitoto Island, which features on the cover of ‘The Pounamu Prophecy’. Mere describes it as she digs kumara to feed the protesters who in 1977 camped on Bastion Point for 506 days to protect their land against the government’s plan to subdivide this prime piece of real estate. 

How much longer would this go on? I wiped a calloused hand across my forehead and rested my wheezing bulk on the rusty garden fork. My gaze swept across the panorama below. To my left stood the city centre – short, squat and tall sleek buildings sandwiched together, their stainless steel and glass shimmering in the afternoon heat… 

Across the harbour entrance was Rangitoto Island. Like a stretched out triangle, perfectly symmetrical, it looked so close I could almost touch it. In front of the island a ferry cut a white trail through the deep blue of the harbour. A light scatter of yachts and fishing boats dotted the sea in between distant green islands of rich farmland and native bush. This was the view that the thieving government was trying to get its dirty hands on. This was why I was digging kumara in the scorching afternoon heat and not greeting the kids with pikelets and raspberry cordial when they arrived home, hot and tired after school. 

Gateway to New Zealand 

Auckland boasts wonderful beaches, bush walks and cafes but there's so much more. Within a few hours you can be floating on a rubber tube through underground glow worm caves, rafting over waterfalls, eating corn straight from a steaming thermal hole in the ground, walking on a live volcano, or strolling along an almost deserted beach. Take your raincoat and enjoy!

 About Cindy Williams

With degrees in Nutrition, Public Health and Communication Cindy has worked for many years as a dietitian for sports teams, food industry, media, and as a nutrition writer and speaker.

Her first novel, The Pounamu Prophecy, was short listed for the 2016 Caleb Prize. She is currently editing her second novel about a woman who had five husbands.

Cindy grew up in a culturally rich part of New Zealand. Now she lives in Sydney with her husband and son, writing stories of flawed women who battle injustice... and sometimes find romance. 

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Focus

By Cindy Williams

Maybe you can write with a messy house but I can’t! I sit at my computer trying to focus on my characters but the thought of those dirty dishes in the sink or those unmade beds niggles at me, eroding my concentration. Maybe you are fine with unattended housework; maybe it’s the argument you had with a family member, an upset child or a misunderstanding with a friend.

Having read an article in my son’s school newsletter last week, I now know why that dirty floor disrupts my focus. Based on the book ‘Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence’ by Daniel Coleman (also author of ‘Emotional Intelligence’) the article explained that we have two semi-independent mental systems in the brain: the ‘Bottom-up’ mind and the ‘Top-down’ mind.

The ‘Bottom-up’ mind is the sub-cortex of our lower brain. It controls our habits, routines, intuition and impulses. It automatically runs without us having to think about it. It tells me that my house needs cleaning! No wonder artists escape to places where they can allow their creativity to flow without the interruption of daily duties.

The ‘Top-down’ mind is the neo-cortex of the upper brain. It is the seat of self control, effort, planning and new learning. This is what I need to use when I am writing but that stronger ‘Bottom-up’ mind tries its best to interrupt.

To focus, and use our ‘Top-down’ mind, we need to do three things:

1. Close down sensory distractions around us e.g. turn off the Wi-Fi and turn the phone to silent.
2. Minimise the amount we focus on. The top down system can only hold about five pieces of information at once. Multi-tasking saps attention resulting in shallow rather than deep learning.
3. Close down emotional distracters within us. We have to tame the ‘Bottom-up’ system. When we try to consciously focus, for example, on writing, our emotional anxieties and uncomfortable, unresolved relationships fight for our attention.

Two types of people are better at focusing: those who can box off their emotions and those who are secure and at peace in their relationships.

And when we need a break from focusing, we can switch off with walking, a relaxing creative pursuit or meeting with a friend - all positive ‘Bottom-up’ thinking activities. Isn’t God great how he designed our brains? Now I know the physiology behind why a walk so relaxes and inspires me, and why 'a heart at peace gives life to the body' - and to the creative part of our brain!

About Cindy Williams

As a child growing up in a culturally rich part of New Zealand Cindy enjoyed writing, not copious screeds, but short intense pieces that brought tears to her eyes and made people think.

Then she became a dietitian – all science and seriously researched facts. She has a Master of Public Health and a Graduate Diploma in Communication and spent many years as a corporate nutrition consultant encouraging and inspiring people to live a healthy life.

She writes a nutrition blog – www.nutritionchic.com - and was short listed for the 2016 Caleb Prize for her debut novel The Pounamu Prophecy.

Cindy lives in Sydney with her husband and teenage son.

The Extra Mile

By Cindy Williams

The day is all planned out: get to the gym, grab the groceries, put on the washing and sit down to write. Then the phone rings – a friend needs prayer or my mum wants to chat or the school sends my son home sick. I berate myself for not getting my writing done, or worse still I get irritated that I have to rush off to teach scripture class or that the women’s prayer group is taking too long. I have to write!

This has been my past week – the deadline for this post looming closer while my great idea on what to write flounders like a fish on the mud flats.

In desperation I flick through the photos of my recent ‘research’ trip to Israel and Samaria. One jumps out - a Roman milestone in the garden of the Tel Dor museum. I recall the words of Jesus: ‘If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.’ (Matt 5:41)

Milestones marked out every mile along the first century Roman roads. A Roman soldier could legally force a person to carry his pack for one mile. Imagine if you were on an urgent errand, had a field to plough or… a scroll to write. Suddenly you are forced to drop everything – so inconvenient, so annoying. And what does Jesus say; politely obey and get it over with quickly? No, he says go two miles!

It is not the forced first mile that sets us apart as followers of Jesus; it is the voluntary, purposeful second mile.

When the needs of others disrupt my plans and force me to stop writing it is not an inconvenience or a source of stress that I am not doing what I should be doing. No, it is an opportunity to show the radical, counter-cultural love of Jesus. It is exactly what I should be doing and just as, if not more, of a ministry than my writing. What freedom this change of perspective has brought to me this week.

Can anyone else relate?

About Cindy Williams

With degrees in Nutrition, Public Health and Communication Cindy has worked for many years as a dietitian for sports teams, food industry, media, and as a nutrition writer and speaker.
Her first novel, The Pounamu Prophecy, was short listed for the 2016 Caleb Prize.

She writes a blog - www.nutritionchic.com - stories of health, history, food and faraway places.

Cindy grew up in a culturally rich part of New Zealand, singing the songs and hearing the stories of Maori.

She lives in Sydney with her husband and son, writing stories of flawed women who battle injustice... and sometimes find romance.

Writing With the Help of the Greatest Creator of All

By Cindy Williams

Every summer I return to New Zealand, to the place where I grew up, to a place where it is easy to marvel at the wonder of the Lord’s creation. With just a few words He created the heavens and the earth ‘in all their vast array.’ (Gen 2:1) I imagine the delight the Lord had as He created the colour of the sea, the green of the grass, the petals of each flower, the uniqueness of each person’s fingerprint. As writers we also get a taste of that thrill of creativity, of creating something from nothing. It makes sense –we are created in the Lord’s likeness, including His desire and love of creating.

When my writing flows as effortlessly as trudging through mud I remind myself that I have a friend - a Father - who is the ultimate Creator. Surely, if we ask, He is pleased to help us in our creative endeavours.

‘Which of you if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’ (Matt 7:9-10)

Over the years I have been amazed at God’s faithfulness in helping me to write. When I stop myself from rushing straight to the computer and instead first spend time in prayer, the words and ideas flow. I am by nature a slow writer but on those days when I have a deadline to meet (usually 1000 words to read out to my writing group) and I ask the Lord to help me, He always does. I cannot quite believe I have written so much, so quickly. It is truly supernatural – the ‘natural’ process of writing ‘super’ charged by the hand of God!

‘Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.’ (Matt 11:28) 

The Lord loves to take our burdens and give us rest.

In December I walked the Routeburn Track in the south of the South Island with my family. Maori used this track to access the precious pounamu (greenstone) which they traded with the northern tribes. We walked the 32 km track over three days, climbing to 1300 metres through pouring rain (day 1), minus 9 degree wind chill with snow blowing horizontally at us (day 2) and, on the final day, sun.

We did it the ‘easy’ way which meant that at the end of each day we stayed in lodges with hot showers, heated rooms, real coffee and a three course dinner. We still had to walk the track and carry a pack but with the promise of comfort at the end of each day. It reminded me of our walk, as authors, with God. We do have to sit down and do the work of writing but, with His help, we can do it the ‘easy’ way rather than all in our own strength.

The best thing about being weary or worried about our writing is that it makes us rely more on God and less on ourselves. If this is you, test the Lord out. Before you sit at your computer, fall to your knees and pray. This time of resting with the Lord is sure to reap rewards.

Have you had an experience of the Lord blessing you with a sliver of his creativity? Please share – it’s like a little faith booster for the rest of us!

Blessings, Cindy x

PS I know I am biased but I think New Zealand got an extra portion of God’s creativity!

About Cindy Williams

As a child growing up in a culturally rich part of New Zealand Cindy enjoyed writing, not copious screeds, but short intense pieces that brought tears to her eyes and made people think.

Then she became a dietitian – all science and seriously researched facts. She has a Master of Public Health and a Graduate Diploma in Communication and spent many years as a corporate nutrition consultant encouraging and inspiring people to live a healthy life.

She writes a nutrition blog – www.nutritionchic.com - and was short listed for the 2016 Caleb Prize for her debut novel The Pounamu Prophecy.

Cindy lives in Sydney with her husband and teenage son.