Kai ora tatou

 

Welcome to the website of master carver, artist and musician, Peter Plumb of Kahu Art.

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Peter is a New Zealand artist of Maori ancestry of the Ngai Tahu iwi, mixed with English whaling ancestors who arrived on the shores of Aotearoa in the 1820s, so his family has always held a strong connection with Tangaroa – the sea.

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Peter has spent much of his life immersed in the Maori art practise of carving Pounamu, or greenstone, (New Zealand Nephrite Jade) and his work is influenced by traditional tikanga –Maori customs and values– surrounding the cultural protocols involved and associated with creating designs and working with this rare and precious mineral that has long been sacred to the Maori people of New Zealand.

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Peter only works with authentic and genuine New Zealand Pounamu that he has personally sourced from the mountains and rivers of Tai Poutini –the South Island's West Coast.

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Peter likes to create beautiful, uniquely individual pieces of carved Pounamu artwork and fine jewellery after first talking with his clients and learning more about their whakapapa, genealogy and ancestral story so that he can incorporate that into a one-off design that will become a Taonga –a prized and treasured possession– that can be passed down to the next generations who follow.

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In Maori culture, this is the way it has always been.

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