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RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
More than 15k Māori and Moriori cultural heritage items may be in overseas museums and universities
By Māpuna Photo: All rights Reserved The Kaihautū of Te Papa says there could be well over 15,000 pieces of Māori and Moriori cultural heritage in overseas museums and universities. Arapata Hakiwai, who's been at Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington since it opened in 1998, told Māpuna his work with the museum began with an order from academic Sir Hirini Moko Mead. "He actually said 'Arapata you should go teaching' so I went teaching at Wellington High and he said 'you must go and work for the national museum'. It was very new to me but I found very quickly within the first year or so I was thrown well and truly into the deep end." Hakiwai said he soon realised the museum was outdated and needed to change. "Māori and Moriori ancestors, hundreds, thousands of them were taken, traded, swapped, exchanged, sold to other museums and knowing that our museum was implicitly involved in that at the highest levels." He went on to do research on the number of pieces of Māori and Moriori cultural heritage held in overseas museums and universities. "It's well over the 15, 16 thousand... and this is just a conservative figure because these figures now would be absolutely updated, there's well over 33 museums in the United States, well over 30 museums in the UK that hold Māori taonga and many of them hold large numbers. The Field Museum hold probably one of the largest, over two and a half thousand Māori taonga." The reality is a large percentage of indigenous cultural heritage is held offshore and a large percentage of that comes from an early period and that heritage should be connected back to Māori and Moriori people, Hakiwai said. "The sad reality is over 95 percent wouldn't know off that, wouldn't be aware of the extent of that or where their taonga are, or who have them." This information should be available to Māori and Moriori as matter of right not privilege, he said. Sir Hirini would often say that there are many unique taonga held overseas that we don't have equivalent to back in New Zealand, Hakiwai said. Such as Te Rā in the British Museum The Karanga Aotearoa repatriation programme began in 2003 with a sole focus on tīpuna koiwi or human remains. Hakiwai said many museums throughout the world have agreed to return the tīpuna, a huge change from when the programme started. Many museums in the international community of museums are realising the old practice of 'amassing treasures' can't continue, he said, but there are still museums who keep acquiring. The 1984 Te Māori exhibition has had a huge impact and legacy for the relationships between Māori and overseas museums, he said. "If you take Chicago at the Field Museum, the Field Museum was the last venue of Te Māori and what followed from Te Māori was the restoration of Ruatepupuke, what followed from Te Māori was you had a delegation of staff who traveled over to Tokomaru Bay to say that 'we would like to do something with respect to Ruatepupuke.'" The 19th century wharenui Ruatepupuke originally built in 1881 in Tokomaru Bay now at the Field Museum in Chicago by way of Frankfurt in Germany offers a unique example in to how museums can build partnerships with indigenous people. Maori Meeting House, Ruatepupuke II - Field Museum of Natural History Chicago Photo: Joyofmuseums Hakiwai was involved in the restoration of the wharenui in the 1990s after elders from Tokomaru visited him in Wellington. "They said 'our tīpuna whare is over there but it's unclothed, we need to re-clothe it, it's lonely, it's naked and we want to rectify that'." Initially he believed the project would culminate with the whare's repatriation, but his elders told him "Arapata kia tau te mauri, settle down." They wanted to work with the Field Museum to "reclothe" the whare tūpuna, and it remains in Chicago to this day one of the very few wharenui outside Aotearoa. Hakiwai said he believes museums can have a higher purpose in society by helping to support and uplift the foundations of culture and identity. Even if that means it is time for some of taonga within the collections of Te Papa to return home. "If that is the desire of iwi, hapū and whānau for their taonga to be returned and homed we will work with them to achieve those ends... Having taonga back in their community, in their whenua amongst their people, elevating the histories and their mana and significance surely that's something far greater than taonga sitting on a shelf," he said. It's part of reconciling what can a museum be rather than blindly following what museums are now, he said.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Greer Twiss the ‘Godfather' of contemporary New Zealand sculpture: Laura Vodanovich
In a way I grew up with Twiss, with his work Karangahape Rocks, 1967-69, strongly influencing my young sense of art in public spaces - it was a work that arrested my attention and I would stop and ponder it often. Sculptor Greer Twiss died earlier this month. Photo / Greg Bowker While I was working at Auckland Museum, a project initiated by Outdoor Sculpture 2001, and supported by the Edmiston Trust, installed sculptures throughout the Auckland Domain. Marquette's of these sculptures, including Twiss's work among other significant names in the artworld, were displayed at Auckland Museum in 2004. Some magnificent and striking sculptures were created as part of this initiative, but it was Twiss' work Grafting, that was my very favourite. Grafting is a series of 10 sculptures in the fernery, part of the Wintergardens in the Auckland Domain. These works include nine native birds and a pear tree, each complete with a label typical of those used on specimens you might find in a museum. The individual labels include the Latin, te reo Māori and English 'common' name for each bird, but for the tree just the word pear along with Twiss's signature. Woven through this work you can detect his interest in the colonial period through his use of three forms of classification identifying each native bird. For the pear tree, introduced to Aotearoa by missionary Samuel Marsden, Twiss dispenses with the three names and strips this specimen to just the one common name, pear. His exploration of the colonial period and the 'dialogue between the natural situation and the imposed brought into the situation' has seen him create a number of works on this theme. In 2020 his agent, Jane Sanders, reached out to us to say Twiss would like to offer a work to the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust Tai Ahuriri collection and we were delighted to accept his generous offer. The work, Hobson's Baggage, 1995, is another sculpture exploring the colonial theme. Toni MacKinnon, art curator at the time, wrote that 'Greer Twiss' sculpture brings objects together in unexpected ways… Queen Victoria is loaded into an old suitcase, there is a flag that has no way of fitting into the case, and a watering can! And what is the little lamp about?' Twiss of course made sense of this, pondering what Hobson might have bought in his luggage including, possibly, a bust of Queen Victoria. In his eyes the items all represent something including authority, cultivation and the law. It is a wonderful work to have in our collection and another way in which Twiss has positively influenced my personal relationship with artworks in Aotearoa.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Scoop
Turning Waste Into Wins: Thirteen Local Projects Supported With $60K In QLDC Funding
Through its Waste Minimisation Community Fund (WMCF), Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) is once again backing passionate locals who are taking action to reduce waste and promote the sustainable use of resources. The fund supports projects that cut waste, recover valuable materials, and contribute to a more sustainable future for the district and its communities. This year, thirteen local projects are being supported to help reduce waste across the district, including initiatives such as low-waste parenting workshops, retirement village education programmes, sustainable party packs to loan from a local toy library, and the reuse of surplus building materials. 'What makes this year's projects so exciting is their strong focus on practicality and community impact,' said QLDC Sustainability Advisor Emma Brockie. 'We've been really impressed with the hands-on solutions proposed to address a variety of waste challenges.' The WMCF is an annual contestable fund open to community groups, schools, businesses, iwi/Māori organisations, and individuals. It includes $50,000 to support community action and behaviour change projects, and $10,000 toward commercial waste minimisation, sponsored by WM New Zealand. This year's round saw 20 applications submitted over five weeks, requesting close to $200,000 in total. A panel of QLDC staff and an elected member carefully assessed each application to ensure alignment with fund goals. Thanks to the WMCF, the Wakatipu Toy Library will soon offer reusable party packs with themed decorations, tableware, and age-appropriate toys, making kids' parties more affordable, fun, and low-waste. Adaptive Snowsports Whakatipu Charitable Trust is using WMCF funding to repurpose ski clothing left behind by guests visiting local ski fields in Queenstown into unique skirts that will be practical and fun. The skirts will be created from ski clothing, sleeping bags, toggles and ties from gloves, elastic from googles, and anything else that can be reused, upcycled and reimagined and kept out of landfill. This year's WMCF is also supporting Waste Education for Retirement Villages, a series of fun and practical sessions led by educator Kate Fenwick. Designed for older adults, the sessions offer simple, age-appropriate ways to reduce household waste. Topics include reusable incontinence products, food waste reduction, recycling, and low-waste living. 'These community-led projects empower people to take simple, everyday action that collectively moves us closer to becoming a zero-waste district,' said Ms Brockie. For more about the Waste Minimisation Community Fund, visit FURTHER INFORMATION | Kā pāroko tāpiri: 2025/26 Waste Minimisation Community Fund recipients: · Adaptive Snowsports Whakatipu Charitable Trust - Snoskirz · Aspire Preschool and Nursery - Little Sprouts, Big Impact: Composting for a Zero Waste Future · CaliWoods Limited - Natural, Low-Waste Parenting: Workshops for Expecting and New Parents · Cameron Tippett - Recycled Filament Project · Dripping Bowl - Glass bottle return scheme; For more than just milk · Ian Fitzpatrick - The Trash Goblin · KingsView School - Compost System for our School · Merino Muster Limited - Sip smart - coming to your aid at the Muster · Natacha Murphy - Sustainable Cycles: Making Reusable Period Products Accessible · Protect Our Winters New Zealand Incorporated - Sustainable Slopes: Repair, Swap, and Learn · Wakatipu Toy Library - Sustainable Party Packs · Waste-Ed with Kate - Waste Minimisation Education in QLDC Retirement Villages · Women's Shed Aotearoa (formally known as Women's Shed Queenstown) - 'From Offcut to Opportunity': Diverting Surplus Building Materials through Reuse and Skill-Building
