Artefacts exhibit upsets
PA Palmerston North The Manawatu Museum’s director, Mrs Mina McKenzie, is fuming over the shoddy presentation of valuable Maori artefacts in the Musee de I’Homme in Paris.
A feather cloak and patus have been nailed to the wall and another exhibit is held together with copper wire.
Mrs McKenzie turned her back on the display and walked out of the museum. She was so distressed that she packed up and left France the next morning.
Mrs McKenzie made a pilgrimage to the museum late last year when she attended the conference of the International Council of Museums in London.
She especially wanted to see two palisade posts from the old Puketotara pa which stood on the banks of the
Manawatu River near Rangiotu before the 1870 s. The posts were given by chiefs to members of the Pascal family, who in turn gave them to the French Government in 1899. “They are among the very few early local Maori carvings we know of. They are very important,” said Mrs McKenzie. “These and the other artefacts represent us. You feel very proud to find them half way across the world.
“It is as good a kind of ambassadorship as you can have. The more sympathetically they are displayed the greater the worth. But my expectations of the Musee de I’Homme were obviously too great.” The posts, carved in the' formiof ancestral figures, were'part of the “unsym-
pathetic” Maori artefacts display at the museum.
“The Pascals have been let down badly,” said Mrs McKenzie. “So have we.” .Mrs McKenzie, who is proud of her Maori heritage, was too upset to complain immediately about the display to the museum, or to New Zealand officials in Paris.
Since returning home she has reported to her own museum and to the New Zealand Art Galleries and Museums’ Association.
In spite of the distress, Mrs McKenzie said the experience had been valuable.
“It made me wonder how sympathetic we are when it comes to mounting displays depicting other cultures,” she said.
“That is one good thing that ha* come out of it.” t
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Press, 31 January 1984, Page 20
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350Artefacts exhibit upsets Press, 31 January 1984, Page 20
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