Taonga Maori in the British Museum

Taonga Maori in the British Museum

For the first time a book that catalogues the more than 2,300 Maori cultural items held in the British Museum is being published.

The book came about as a result of a promise made after a major exhibition, “Maori: Art and Culture”, held in the British Museum in 1998. The promise was to publish “a definitive catalogue to show exactly what items are in the British Museum and what is known by the Museum about them.”

Taonga Maori in the British Museum , is the result of over a decade’s research by leading specialists from both New Zealand and the United Kingdom . It is being published in Aotearoa by Te Papa Press.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum , says “The Maori collections are among the most frequently visited in the department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas . We hope this catalogue will be useful, most of all, to Maori. There is still much research to be done, for example on the Cook Collection, the material acquired from the Royal United Services Institution, or the Wellcome Collection, and we would welcome any corrections or additional information about the catalogued items.”

The collection began with items obtained during Captain James Cook’s three voyages of exploration. Other items were collected and sold or gifted to the Museum by colonial administrators, missionaries, members of the British armed forces, or their descendants. Consequently the collection contains mainly small, easily portable objects, and includes woodcarvings, model canoes and paddles, domestic equipment, cloaks, baskets, jewellery, musical instruments, ceremonial objects, fishing and hunting equipment, tools and weapons. Some of the items are believed to be the only examples of their kind remaining in existence.

The collection reflects the individual collectors’ personal tastes at a time when curators were interested mainly in completing series of objects of similar types, and were less concerned with the provenance of those items.

Taonga Maori in the British Museum is available to purchase online at www.tepapastore.co.nz. A database of the collection is available online through the British Museum ’s website.

ENDS

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