Crystal Walker

MAOR5050 Understanding Te Ao Maori

Field Trip Reflections

Museum

In the museum we were provided with some guidelines to help us identify

some of the significant aspects of the Auckland museum and how it
portrayed Maori culture and history. For my personal experience I explored
only two sections of the museum, the European settlement display and the
Maori culture displays. This was more of a self-directed learning experience
based around our own findings and interpretation of the display. One thing I
had noted is that the presence to Te Reo Maori in the museum, most items
on display (the Maori area) had their name and description written in Maori
first and then secondly in an English translation. I also recognized a
difference in the carvings, particularly the poupou, at Unitec the pou are
representatives of an event, a time or a story however all of the pou on
display at the museum were of a tribal member usually a chief or person of
great mana. I did not feel tikanga and traditional customs were well
represented at the museum, there was very little information to explain
cultural or spiritual aspects of Maori. The only display that included this was
the whare where there was a sign asking to remove your shoes before
entering, but without a significant description of why this protocol is followed
and it was simply stated this was a sign of respect. There were also some
things in the displays that were not well explained and left me curious, for
example there was a large map of New Zealand that indicated what area
particular tribes originated from and proposed waka landing sites. Significant
areas had a pounamu carving representative of the area in the display, and
within the glass box of each carving was a section of native tree. I was
unsure what the tree represented and would have liked the display to
elaborate.
When walking through the museum I explored the European settlement
section first where I found two small signs with some information about the

Crystal Walker
MAOR5050 Understanding Te Ao Maori

treaty of Waitangi, these signs continued on through the Maori section with
small descriptions acknowledging the significance of the treaty in relation to
whatever display it was near. This was very informative and it eventually
lead me to an interactive touch screen display where I could actually read
the full treaty text and see the comparisons between the English and Maori
versions, play short films re-enacting the happenings at the signing and also
see a time line relating to the treaty from the time of signing to the current
date. I found the museum display to be a good representation of Te Ao Maori
but felt there was a lack of tikanga and also an absence of the spiritual
aspect of the Maori culture.