Elsewhere, the deep green of pounamu marks the sources of greenstone, and silver and greys are deployed in a startling evocation of mist and spume.
The pair were charged with stealing pounamu, or greenstone, a neglected treasure fused into fissures of southern mountains.
Then Maori used it, extensively, in regular migrations, and as a portage route for pounamu.
Are we really depriving them of their treaty rights with respect to pounamu by saying that they cannot take pounamu, or greenstone, from these eight little marine reserves in Fiordland?
When my own parents-in-law were down in the Arahura Valley, on the West Coast, where pounamu is gathered, they were denied access one time, when they were just wanting to take a stroll along the river.