{"id":28335,"date":"2021-02-13T04:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T19:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/feb\/13\/opportunists-and-smugglers-the-growing-trade-in-sacred-maori-stones"},"modified":"2021-02-13T04:00:53","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T19:00:53","slug":"opportunists-and-smugglers-illicit-trade-in-sacred-maori-greenstone-thrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=28335","title":{"rendered":"Opportunists and smugglers: illicit trade in sacred M\u0101ori greenstone thrives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Covid hardships mean pounamu is increasingly being targeted for its value, Indigenous leaders say<\/p>\n<p>The rugged west coast of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/newzealand\">New Zealand<\/a> is home to many secrets. Rivers that run flush with gold, beaches that conceal ambergris, and waterways dotted with boulders of the sacred <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/m-ori\">M\u0101ori<\/a> stone, pounamu<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Imbued with spiritual significance to New Zealand\u2019s Indigenous tribes, pounamu \u2013 otherwise known as greenstone or New Zealand jade \u2013 is highly prized. For centuries M\u0101ori have fashioned it into jewellery, tools and even weapons, which could denote status or be used as ceremonial objects or symbols of peace agreements.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/feb\/13\/opportunists-and-smugglers-the-growing-trade-in-sacred-maori-stones\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Covid hardships mean pounamu is increasingly being targeted for its value, Indigenous leaders sayThe rugged west coast of New Zealand is home to many secrets. Rivers that run flush with gold, beaches that conceal ambergris, and waterways dotted with bo&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1814,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,897,56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-maori","category-new-zealand","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1814"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28337,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28335\/revisions\/28337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}