Papa Mike

But it also kind of made me think about that whole thing of being able to take raw pounamu out of our country, out of Aotearoa.

I mean, it just shouldn't happen.

But it happens all the time.

And the fact that this Tonga, this beautiful Tonga, has been used in that way.

So what would happen is they would export it out of New Zealand, take it back to China, and that 18 kilos would have come back worth millions of dollars in fake carved ornaments and trinkets and stuff like that, including Maori ones.

Yeah.

And that was part of the issue as well because there's no control over, there's no tikanga around it.

If you buy proper greenstone or proper panama these days, it'll often have a reference number so you'll know what block of panama it was taken from, the carver who carved it.

My wife and I gave each other some beautiful tonga each and we know the carver, we know where it's come from.

So all of that.

Yeah, yeah.

But it opened up a bit of a Pandora's box, to be honest with you, because some of the stories that you hear, like, you know that.

Did you say millions?

Yeah, millions.

Millions of dollars.

I don't want to skip over that.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes.

Can I just stop?

Yeah.