Te Māori 40th anniversary collection
10 Sep 2024
Ngā Taonga is proud to introduce a special curated collection to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Te Māori exhibition
Hero image: Te Māori exhibition opening procession. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10 September 1984. Collection Reference: TZP8386. Year: 1984. Credit: TVNZ, Sonny Waru.
The 10th of September 2024 marks a special anniversary in the world of traditional Māori arts. Forty years ago to the day, the watershed exhibition Te Māori opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The exhibition put on international display 174 taonga Māori from museums across Aotearoa New Zealand and was the first time that Māori were actively involved in exhibiting their taonga overseas.
It had taken a decade since the idea of an international Māori arts exhibition was first conceived to bring Te Māori to the world stage – a decade of planning, delicate negotiations, and determination. However, this journey proved to be a small cost to achieve what the Te Māori exhibition did – placing a global spotlight on authentic Māori taonga.
After exhibiting The Met in New York, Saint Louis Art Museum, the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, and the Field Museum in Chicago between 1984 and 1986, the exhibition triumphantly returned to tour Aotearoa in 1987. On its return, it was rebranded as Te Māori: Te Hokinga Mai (The Return Home), and exhibited in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Both abroad and back home, the exhibition was met by acclaim and applause, kindling great pride for many Māori. With over 1.5 million visitors globally, the hugely successful exhibition had a lasting impact on the way museums and art galleries interpret, curate, and manage taonga Māori.
To celebrate the exhibition’s 40th anniversary, in collaboration with Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust, Ngā Taonga has today published an online curated collection of audiovisual taonga that illuminates Te Māori and its cultural legacy. The Archive is honoured to be able to mark the occasion by bringing attention to these treasured records of the exhibition.
Ngā Taonga would like to thank the kaitiaki and rights holders of the taonga featured in this collection for allowing them to be shared on this very special occasion.
