MAORI GALLERY TO BE UPGRADED

Tu Tangata, Issue 1, 1 August 1981, Page 26

MAORI GALLERY TO BE UPGRADED

The redesigning and refurbishing of the Maori gallery of the National Museum in Wellington is the museum council’s top priority for 1981, the Director, Dr John Yaldwyn, has announced.

“Over the years the gallery, which displays some of the finest skills of the Maori people of earlier days, has had only minor alterations and improvements. The time has come to have a good look at it and replan and develop the whole gallery,” said Dr Yaldwyn.

The museum council had already looked at three proposals for redevelopment, and had decided that as soon as possible a meeting should be held with the Maori people throughout the country to discuss the future plans.

“The museum council is the guardian of much of the history of New Zealand, which includes Maori and early settlement artefacts and possessions and also the complete range of natural history including sea and bird life, insects, geology and minerals.”

One of the main proposals is to build a mezzanine floor on the north, east and west sides to increase the display area. What was needed in the main gallery was reorganising and replanning the display cases and their contents. “The labels and explanations of many of the Maori arte-

facts and history are not accurate enough, and need researching and rewriting. Some of them were written in the period between the two world wars, and were old-fashioned and even patronising in some cases,” Dr Yaldwyn said.

Part of the planning would involve the extra space which will become available when the National Art Gallery is able to move to a new site, perhaps closer to the centre of Wellington.

“What the council would like to do is to show the carvings and other craft work and artefacts on a tribal or canoe basis, so that the different styles can be better seen and studied,” said Dr Yaldwyn.

The major immediate problem was damage being caused by ultra-violet light. The large ceiling skylights and the north windows are being treated to reduce the ultra-violet light and spot-lights and display case lights are being replaced with ultra-violet-free ones.

“The museum council is determined to upgrade the whole area and plan how best to display those artefacts already on show, and the other treasures which are in storage”, said Dr Yaldwyn. “Even at this early stage of planning, the council would be very pleased to receive any ideas from the public on the future of the Maori gallery.”