Cambridge embraces Pacific

The museum at Cambridge houses the second largest collection of Pacific ethnography in Britain after the British Museum. Picture / Cambridge Museum Of Archaeology And Anthropology

A Maori studies course at Auckland University, Te Kete Aronui, led to Dr Amiria Henare's appointment as a curator at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University.

Dr Maureen Lander's course in Maori material culture, which researches traditional technologies and generates ways of revitalising and recording that knowledge, prompted Henare to visit 100 museums in New Zealand and Scotland to research artefacts, Maori weaving and indigenous anthropology.

"I was looking for Scottish heirlooms in New Zealand and New Zealand things, mainly Maori artefacts, in Scotland and all the museum curators were very generous with their time," Henare says.

That experience formed the basis of her thesis, Museums, Anthropology and Imperial Exchange, which will be published next month by Cambridge University Press. The final chapter compares the Museum of Scotland with Te Papa Tongarewa.

Henare says, "It's in my whakapapa - my great-great-grandfather, James Ingram McDonald, was the first ethnographic photographer to record Maori tribal lore and practice on film, including the 1919 week-long hui welcoming home the Maori Pioneer Battalion from World War I.

"Working closely with Sir Apirana Ngata, Sir Peter Buck and Elsdon Best, his work helped to encourage and nurture the practice of traditional Maori arts, which were under threat at the time."

This family legacy led Henare - whose mother is historian Dame Anne Salmond and her father conservation architect Jeremy Salmond - into the field of anthropology and studies at Auckland University and Cambridge.

The museum at Cambridge houses the second largest Pacific collection of Pacific ethnography in Britain - the British Museum has the largest - and collections date back to the voyages of Captain Cook in the late 18th century.

Henare is preparing for an international exhibition, festival and conference of contemporary Maori and Pacific Island art and culture. Called Pasifika Styles, it will be held at Cambridge for 18 months, opening in April next year.

"Along with the amazing collection of taonga in the museum we will be showcasing the work of contemporary artists from Aotearoa," Henare says.

"We are expecting the Cambridge campus to explode with lush Pacific sights and sounds.

"The living heart of the project is the week-long festival which will incorporate theatre, music and dance performances at a Cambridge venue. We are also keen to involve New Zealanders based in Britain, particularly Maori and Pacific Island people."

The co-curator is Rosanna Raymond, a New Zealand-Samoan artist and scholar based in London, who was instrumental in setting up Style Pasifika. She is a member of the Pacific Sisters performance art collective.

The British arts community has shown "great interest" and a big turnout is expected.

The museum is only 50 minutes by train from London.