Perth Museum impresses esteemed visitor from NZ
Treasured items from New Zealand and its native cultures kept in Perth Museum were admired by a visiting expert recently.
Awhina Tamarapa, a Māori curator and scholar of Māori history and material culture, was in Perth as part of a UK tour, looking at important collections of early Māori woven textiles.
As well as coming to Perth she was at the Pitt Rivers in Oxford, Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Aberdeen University.
In Perth she looked at the handful of cloaks and other textiles, particularly, of course, the unique kakapo cloak, which is the only one in the world.
She also looked at one or two other rare items, including a nose flute or‘putorino’; a ritual staff-weapon or‘taiaha’and an elaborately carved featherbox or‘waka huia’.
Awhina told the PA that Perth has items of great significance:“My impression of the Māori collection in the Perth Museum has always been of awe.
“There are rare ancestral taonga (cultural treasures) from the Dr David Ramsay collection that are of great significance. It gives me hope to think that future research and museums working together creatively, can lead to ongoing, exciting outcomes.
“New thinking based on developing reconnections, sharing knowledge and cross cultural understanding, can only be positive.”
Perth Museum’s collections officer Mark A Hall, who looks after the world cultures collection, explained that Perth has this very important collection because Dr David Ramsay left the city in the early 19th century as a ship’s surgeon and set up a business in Australia.
Mark added:“He remained a member of the Perth Literary and Antiquarian Society and in 1842 sent a large consignment of objects to members for inclusion in the museum (the rotunda bit of the present museum).
“Because these items were collected very early in the UK-Oceania colonial relationship, they are particularly important.”
Regarding Awhina’s visit, he said:“I was delighted to welcome Awhina and benefit from her expertise and experience with Māori collections. The Perth collection has a very significant collection of Māori objects and the sharing of knowledge and understanding that it brings is a very positive for Perth Museum and Te Papa [New Zealand’s national museum] to deepen their working relationship.
“We look forward to further collaboration around these significant, powerful objects and the communities they represent.”