Te Awe Kōtuku ki Ngā Taonga

Ngā Taonga is delighted to be delivering three important initiatives that will preserve critically endangered Mātauranga Māori as part of the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme being led by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Te Awe Kōtuku is funding a total of 18 projects that support iwi and Māori directly in protecting mātauranga from the social and financial impacts of COVID-19. Ngā Taonga will deliver three distinct projects that preserve and describe audiovisual taonga Māori, these are:

Preservation and Digitisation of the Tangata Whenua Series

Ngā Taonga will undertake the preservation, digitisation and description of the iconic six-part television series Tangata Whenua (1974), as well as preserving and compiling the non-broadcast interviews footage. This project will be progressed in consultation with relevant kaitiaki, whānau, hapū and iwi.

Application of Traditional Knowledge Labels to the National Documentary Heritage Collections (pilot)

In partnership with Ngā Taonga, an iwi from the eastern Bay of Plenty, Te Whakatōhea will run a pilot programme applying Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels to taonga Māori held by Ngā Taonga and other cultural heritage institutions. TK Labels are an internationally recognised archiving tool, designed to help indigenous peoples assert their intellectual property rights; add important context to cataloguing; and ensure appropriate use of and access to their mātauranga and taonga.

Community Digitisation Wānanga of at-risk Audiovisual Taonga

This ambitious community digitisation project is designed to save at-risk audiovisual material stored on magnetic media, which degrades over time. Ngā Taonga will provide training and field kits that iwi across the country can use to preserve their own audio-visual mātauranga for future generations.

The other organisations involved in the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme are Creative New Zealand, Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, Te Matatini, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Te Puni Kōkiri and Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs. We very much look forward to collaborating with them on this nationally important heritage initiative.

For more information about Te Awe Kōtuku ki Ngā Taonga, contact Paul Meredith at paulmeredith@ngataonga.org.nz or 027 386 9186.

Hero image: Te Kāmata Kura by Bernard Makoare.