Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air

A video of a man smashing pounamu with a hammer has caused outrage on social media.

The destruction of the taonga appears to relate to a fringe fundamentalist Christian belief held by the two people in the video that the wearing of pounamu is idolatry.

Throughout the video, uploaded to Facebook by the account Ahi Wairua Tapu, the woman filming explains the taonga was gifted to the man by his father.

"[Pounamu] is not worth having in your homes," the woman says. "All it is is stone, nothing more and nothing less."

After placing the pounamu on the ground and using a hammer to smash it, the man says, "it means nothing whānau. It's going to save my life, what I just did, and it could save yours."

The pounamu was gifted to the man by his father.

The original video has since been removed, however, other users have reposted it and shared it on TikTok.

Social media users reacted to the video with concern, seeing the destruction as spiritually and physically troubling.

Ahi Wairua Tapu regularly posts Biblical scripture denouncing non-Christian spiritual imagery.

For Māori, pounamu is a sacred taonga. This follows a belief that pounamu can absorb and hold mauri (a life force or spiritual energy).

The different beliefs led some users to see the destruction as a cultural and spiritual clash between Māori and Christian traditions.

The people in the video appear to be Māori, leading some social media users to describe the couple as "colonised" in outwardly denigrating and destroying a symbol of Māori culture.

- Raphael Franks, Te Rito journalism cadet