The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is a bicultural institution that acts as kaitiaki or guardian for an extensive taonga Maori and Moriori collection. With approximately 29,500 taonga from across the islands of Aotearoa New Zealand, the collection represents diverse knowledge systems applied to communal or personal taonga of special value, and the ongoing significance these taonga have to contemporary iwi, hapu and whanau (social groups).
The entire collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) highlights the skills and innovations employed by tohunga or tribal experts, from around 800–900 years ago to the present day. When Pacific technologies were applied to different resources, materials and needs in a temperate climate another existence and a unique visual culture flourished that is well respected and celebrated today.
When caring for, or presenting taonga, particular principles and practices are favoured at Te Papa. Te Papa recognises the cultural notion of mauri or the life principle or essence that derives from a Maori world view, where humankind is genealogically related to all matter. All things, both animate and inanimate, possess mauri. Therefore, natural and human-fashioned forms invested with mauri have a spiritual dimension that demands ritualised attention.
A principle known as mana taonga is observed at Te Papa. It recognises the strong spiritual and cultural connections taonga have with their people through the whakapapa or genealogy of the creator, the ancestors after whom the taonga is named and the ongoing connections expressed by those to whom the taonga is cherished as cultural signifier or heirloom. Iwi and other communities therefore have rights to define how taonga or cultural material within Te Papa should be cared for and managed according to different tikanga or customs. Te Papa ensures that the rights conferred by mana taonga are protected by practice so that any relationships created with Maori or other communities and their esteemed cultural material are well looked after. Mana taonga reminds Te Papa of its obligation to extend museum practice. Te Papa is aware of the sensitivities and intricacies of what are often difficult historical contexts surrounding taonga, particularly those that entered the collection at times of conflict and social disruption.
From the 1860s until the early 1980s museums in New Zealand often collected and then interpreted taonga without any referral to, or contribution of, iwi or hapu. While some taonga in the collection may have been gifted, they were inevitably sold off to collectors. Over time many taonga were bought, stolen, bartered, confiscated, fossicked or unceremoniously removed from areas of cultural importance to iwi and hapu. This severance continues to impact on descendants today.
With this in mind, museums no longer have the unfettered right to unilaterally make decisions about how taonga are cared for and managed. While some museum directors and staff, particularly museum anthropologists began to initiate changes to museum practice in the 1960s, it was not until the success of Te Maori, the exhibition that toured the United States and New Zealand in 1984–87, that national and international practice for museums shifted when dealing with indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual material.
In developing these shifts in ideology, the Treaty of Waitangi is the base on which the bicultural foundation of Te Papa celebrates both Maori and Moriori as tangata whenua, the first peoples of the land with rights of first settlement. The treaty affords right to the diversity of peoples within contemporary society at large.
The Rongomaraeroa marae complex and Te Hono ki Haiwaiki as the contemporary meeting place at Te Papa embody a living marae concept as the focal point for all peoples to meet at Te Papa. The marae recognises the unique cultural origins of Maori and Moriori through the application of protocols unique to the culture. Rongomaraeroa is therefore the conceptual heart from which the bicultural nature of the museum manifests itself. Te Hono ki Haiwaiki as the contemporary meeting house refers to ancestral origins while extending an embrace to all peoples and all cultures. This fundamental acknowledgement of shared kinship and the concept of manaaki tangata, or welcome to all visitors is observed at Te Papa. While Te Hono ki Haiwaiki is innovative in design it remains customary in concept.
Te Papa understands the Maori cultural notion of ongoing relationships between the past, present and future, and the challenges this raises for both museum and iwi. The efforts of curators and researchers around taonga Maori concentrate on bringing people and ancestral taonga with strong iwi associations back together again.
Figure 10.1 Maori Resource Room
© Huhana Smith
Figure 10.2 Space to research and to talk
© Huhana Smith
Curatorial research efforts reveal many aspects about the most unique or even unusual taonga. Such research can also chart shifts in carving practice, especially with changes in symbolism wrought by the nineteenth century. Te Papa also acknowledges an endurance of customary concepts that underpin the work of contemporary artists through an active collection development plan.
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is committed to celebrating a dynamic Maori visual culture nationally and internationally that acknowledges innovation, recognises and supports Maori knowledge systems, and reveres the connection and continuity between nga tupuna, nga uri me nga whakatipuranga e whai ana – the ancestors, descendants and future generations to come.
A version of this essay by Huhana Smith appears in Icons nga taonga from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa Press: Wellington, 2004).
Cite this chapter as: Smith, Huhana. 2006. ‘The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa’. South Pacific Museums, edited by Healy, Chris; Witcomb, Andrea. Monash University ePress: Melbourne. pp. 10.1–10.3.
© Copyright 2006 Huhana Smith
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