Two wins for ‘taonga returned’ exhibition

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Tairawhiti Museum was announced last night as the winner of two awards at the Service Q NZ Museum Awards.

The Gisborne museum’s exhibition, Taonga Pare-Mata: Mangatu Taonga Returned, won awards in both the Exhibition Excellence Taonga Maori category, and the Kia Toi Te Reo, Most Innovative Use of Maori category.

Taonga pare-mata translates to “taonga returned”. The collection of taonga that included tara tao (barbed spear points), carved pare (door lintel), stone mata toki (adze blades) and hoanga (grinding stones) had been housed in the Auckland War Memorial Museum since 1929.

Tairawhiti Museum staff and people closely involved with the return of the Mangatu taonga were rapt at the announcement of the awards, said museum director Eloise Wallace.

“We were delighted to take away both awards.

“We were all sitting with fingers crossed. They called out our names and we all went up on stage.

“Kaumatua Eruera Smith spoke and we stayed on stage while they announced we had won the second award.”

Most of the other awards went to bigger museums, said Ms Wallace.

“We represented well.”

The success of the exhibition largely rested on strong partnerships built between the museum and iwi.

“It’s about working together and doing every step of the process together.”

A programme note said the exhibition of returned taonga was an exemplar of process, collaboration and celebration.

“We can all learn from the experiences this project has brought through.”

The awards were presented at a ceremony in Te Papa last night as part of the Museums Aotearoa annual conference in Wellington.