Te Maori activities outlined

Press, 20 February 1987, Page 5

Te Maori activities outlined

A fashion parade of Maori clothing, representing traditional and modern designs, will be held at the Canterbury Museum on March 15 as part of activities to celebrate the opening of Te Maori exhibition at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.

Te Maori will be formally opened in a dawn ceremony at the gallery on March 14. It will open to the public from 1 p.m.

Permission to hold the fashion parade in the

museum’s Pacific Hall was granted by the Museum Board at a meeting yesterday. The public would be able to attend, said the chairman of Te Maori management committee in Canterbury, and a member of the board, Mr Rakiihia Tau. In April several other activities will be held in the Pacific Hall, including a three-week weaving display. Taonga (treasures) from throughout the South Island will be displayed at the museum during, the

exhibition. The objective was to support Te Maori, not to detract from it, said Mr Tau. Two marquees would be set up in the Botanic Gardens next to the gallery, during the dawn ceremony. One would have a video screen to show the ceremony to the hundreds of guests who would not be able to fit into the gallery. Up to 700 guests would then move to the other marquee for breakfast. Guests in the gallery

would be limited to about 150, and so the organising committee would have to decide soo who it would invite, and who to leave out, said Mr Tau. The ' Canterbury Museum hopes a benefactor might appear to provide funding for the purchase of an $BOOO copy of the Domesday Book A big storage cabinet !< would be needed to house the facsimile, said the museum’s librarian, Mrs Josie Laing. Mrs Laing said she had

had a visit from Mr J. G. Studholme, representing Editions Alecto, Ltd, the British publisher of the facsimiles of the book. Mr Studholme had presented a “beautiful” sample, she said. Public interest in the book would be great and the idea of buying a copy “should not be dismissed as a curiosity/* said a board member/ ‘ Mrs Myrtle Duff. The Friends of the MUseum and members of. the Canterbury Pilgrims and Early Settlers*

Association might be willing to contribute. Mr David Close agreed that the book would be of interest, and that a member of the public might be willing to help with the cost of buying the oapy. The Domesday Book is a record of the survey of England ordered in 1086 by William L Its name derives' from the belief • that its judgment was as final as that of Doomsday. The book is preserved London. ; ~t