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Māori Galleries
Auckland Museum protects and cares for an outstanding and significant collection of more than 1000 Māori treasures (taonga). He Taonga Māori (Māori Court) and Te Ao Tūroa (Māori Natural History Gallery) are the main Māori galleries housing these treasures. There are many more held in storage.
There are a number of original full-size buildings in this gallery including Hotunui, the meeting house that was originally a wedding gift from Ngāti Awa in the eastern Bay of Plenty to Ngāti Maru in Thames. Te Toki ā Tāpiri, the last great war canoe used in battle and carved from a giant totara tree, takes pride of place. These are surrounded by a host of everyday objects once used for living, hunting and fishing to provide a holistic presentation of Māori life in Aotearoa before the arrival of the Pākehā.
Traditionally it is meant to welcome visitors, but also to demonstrate their power and readiness to fight should the visitors decide to attack.
Te Ao Tūroa or the Māori natural history gallery, provides visitors with an opportunity for learning something about Māori knowledge and understanding of what is referred to by others as the natural world.
We spent 1.5 hours exploring the Māori exhibits at the Auckland Museum. Since we were on a ship excursion, our time was limited. To get a complete understanding of this culture would require much more time at the museum. Fortunately, we captured many images during our visit which have more details about the people and their culture. If you'd like to learn more we suggest visiting the museum's website as well as the Maori Source website.
Additional photos can be found on our Australia & New Zealand Shutterfly page
Auckland City Drive
Auckland Museum
Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.
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