File:Te Maori Exhibition (9704496197).jpg

On the 10th September 1984, the Te Maori Exhibition opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was the first stop on successful tour of the US. It was the first occasion on which Maori art had been exhibited by Maori and the first occasion on which Maori art was shown internationally as art. In the colonial period many Maori objects were widely collected by explorers, missionaries and scientists. Largely they were lost to large European collection institutions such as the London Science Museum & the Victoria and Albert Museum. This alienation meant that Maori regarded many Western cultural institutions with considerable skepticism and overcoming this skepticism to allow objects to be borrowed for exhibition made Te Maori a milestone. The project was driven by Secretary for Maori Affairs, Kara Puketapu, under the auspices of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council with funding from Mobil. On its return to New Zealand in 1986 the exhibition was rebranded as Te Maori: te hokinga mai = the return home and exhibited in the four main centers. Following its closure in Auckland in September 1987, the taonga were returned to the institutions from which they had been borrowed.

The images presented here are from a range of collections based in the Auckland Office of Archives New Zealand.

• The image of Uenuku, which was loaned for Te Maori from the Te Awamutu Museum, thought to date from the 1400's, being measured for its tailor-made packaging. [Archives reference: ZAAP A744/3/44] • The next image shows a packed crate being loaded onto a truck at the Auckland Institute and Museum. The museum had not changed its displays of Maori artefacts since they were installed in 1929 - Te Maori exhibition inspired the museum to refresh and revitalise the displays. [Archives reference: ZAAP A744/1/1] • At the other end of the country another special crate, containing several taonga, is carried down the steps of the Otago Museum in Dunedin. [Archives reference: ZAAP A744/1/2] • Finally a brochure cover for the exhibition featuring the head from the gateway to Pukeroa Pa, an item held at the Auckland Institute and Museum.

The items which formed the Te Maori exhibition were drawn from the institutions already mentioned above, plus the following: Canterbury Museum; National Museum (Wellington); Hawkes Bay Art Gallery and Museum; Gisborne Museum and Art Centre; Taranaki Museum; Whakatane and District Museum; Waikato Art Museum; Rotorua Museum & Southland Museum and Art Gallery.