Sidestep: Unusual tool

An unexpected historical find in 2013 has highlighted the efforts of a documentary-making dive team where a member of the team discovered a (yet- to- be determined) Maori tool at Tawharanui while helping to make a documentary series. While inspecting a crayfish nest in 4m of water when he saw what looked to be ‘‘a funny looking mussel’’ lodged between two rocks. He pulled it clear and was surprised to find a curved stone Maori tool and had a lot of marine growth on it. It had obviously been there ‘‘for some time’’.

His initial thoughts were that this was some sort of finely shaped multi- purpose fishing tool – the three notches on it used to tie the flax line, with the hole at the other end used to tie the line to the handline, It is also still sharp, and would be good for scaling fish. Another idea was that it was part of a fish/crayfish trap located on the bottom. This was stated because it was really well lodged between two large rocks and had to pulled hard to remove it. Some said they were not sure how it would have got so well lodged if it had, say, fallen from a waka.

There is nothing else like it online, they said. They are right, there is nothing else like it. naturally, even without Maori knowing what it is used for or even if it is actually an ancient tool, a prayer was said over it, thus claiming it for Maoridom anyway. This is how things work in NZ folks and why an Asian jade bird is claimed by a Maori tribe (http://tangatawhenua16.wix.com/the-first-ones-blog#!42-The-Stone-Bird-Pt-2/cgla/56f75b0a0cf28bf0e6edaed9)