The New Zealand Team's official Olympic welcome and pounamu for the equestrian eventing. Photo: photosport
No matter where they finish in their Olympic events, the entire New Zealand team will head away from Paris with something precious around their necks - pounamu pendants made by a Māori tribe to remind them of home as they competed for medals.
The 550 pendants given to the athletes and their support teams were hand-crafted over the course of a year by the Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu Māori tribe and are made from Tahutahi pounamu or snowflake jade, a rare green stone found in New Zealand.
"It's a really real privilege to be gifted one, it's sort of a sign of respect, and everyone in the team received these when we arrived here in Paris," Kiwi rower Phillip Wilson told Reuters at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
"It's all part of the culture that the wider New Zealand Olympic team builds to make sure everyone feels special and feels part of what is an amazing team to be part of."
A New Zealand Olympic team pounamu pendant. Photo: photosport
Racing in the men's pairs in the rowing regatta, both he and his racing partner Dan Williamson wore their pendants around their necks, although Williamson said his was not the one he had been gifted in Paris.
"This one's actually a personal one gifted to me by family about six or seven years ago, I haven't taken it off since. It's just a little reminder of home, your piece of home wherever wherever you go around the world," Williamson said.
"It's special to line up against the best athletes from all over the world, and to look down and know that you're from where we're from, from little New Zealand.
"[There's] a lot of pride to wear the silver fern, to be able to wear pounamu around our neck and represent our country."
One of the traditions associated with pounamu stones is that they should be gifted rather than bought.
In Paris, the pendants were laid out in groups during a ceremony for athletes to choose from, although the belief in New Zealand is that it is actually the stone that chooses the recipient, and not the other way round.
"Maori culture is something that the New Zealand team really embraces really well, we feel it makes you really feel part of who you are. And we do - away from home for two and a half months, it just brings you that little sense of home again," Wilson said.
- Reuters
