te ara – journal of museums aotearoa may 2006 Te Ara

journal of museums aotearoa

volume 31 Issue 1 may 2006 Museums Aotearoa ~ Te Tari o Nga Whare Taonga o te Motu is New Zealand's independent peak professional organisation for museums and those who work in, or have an interest in, museums. Members include museums, public art galleries, historical societies, science centres, people who work within these institutions, and individuals connected or associated with arts, culture and heritage in New Zealand.

Vision : Museums Aotearoa Publications Ko Te Kitenga To raise the profile, strengthen the performance, and increase the value of Museums News museums and galleries to their stakeholders and the community. A monthly newsletter published in the first week of each month. Includes Ko te whakaaro he whakapiki ake i te ahua o nga whare taonga me te news from the Museums Aotearoa office as well as media items on member whakapakari ano hoki i a ratau mahi. I tua atu i tena – mo nga ropu tautoko museums and galleries throughout New Zealand. ra te take – me mau haere tonu mai te whakatairanga ake i nga painga o nga whare taonga nei. Te Ara – Journal of Museums Aotearoa Become a Member Published by Museums Aotearoa twice yearly, Te Ara is an authoritative voice, capturing the vibrant spirit and distinctive mood of the museums and art Membership of Museums Aotearoa is open to all individuals & institutions galleries sector. who subscribe to our Code of Ethics.

Member benefits Directory of New Zealand Museums An excellent resource, our annual directory lists contact details, location, • Conferences, seminars and hui opening hours and admission charges of museums & public art galleries • Scholarship and internship opportunities throughout New Zealand.

• Direct advocacy with government and sector stakeholders Code of Ethics • Collaborative opportunities The Code describes the responsibilities of Museums, Governing Bodies, and • Partnership funding initiatives staff, both to each other and to the collections, at the core of every museum, • Job vacancy notifications as well as to the public who support, fund and visit the Museum.

• Museums Card discount scheme A Strategy for the Museum Sector in New Zealand • Preferential advertising rates in Museums Aotearoa publications The strategy document, published in the April 2005, sets out a road map for • Email information service the Museum sector in New Zealand.

Museums Aotearoa Level 8, 104 The Terrace PO Box 10928 Wellington 6143 Aotearoa, New Zealand Phone: + 64 4 499 1313 Fax: + 64 4 499 6313 Email: [email protected] Website: www.museums-aotearoa.org.nz may 2006 volume 31 Issue 1

Left to right Witches, Writers, and Whalers: p47 A New England Adventure in Salem Postcards from antiquity: p18 Travellers, teachers and treachery Arctic anniversary: Centenary of the p25 Te Ara “Arctic Group” at Auckland Museums journal of museums aotearoa

Jane Legget, Editor Editorial Board Roger Blackley, Senior Lecturer, Art History, Victoria University of Wellington Dr. David Butts, Programme Co-ordinator, Heritage and Museum Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North Professor Karen Nero, Director, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury Dr. Paul Tapsell, Tumuaki Mäori, Auckland War Memorial Museum (Chair)

Te Ara: Journal of Museums Aotearoa is published twice yearly by Museums Aotearoa Te Tari o Nga Whare Taonga o te Motu The Museums of New Zealand Incorporated

Registered office: Museums Aotearoa Inc. Postal address: PO Box 10-928, Wellington 6143 Telephone: (04) 499 1313, Fax: (04) 499 6313 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.museums-aotearoa.org.nz Chair of the Board: Thérèse Angelo, Director, Air Force Museum Executive Director: Phillipa Tocker

ISSN:1175-835X The views expressed in this Journal are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Museums Aotearoa. Copyright © Museums Aotearoa 2006. All rights reserved. Permission must be obtained from the editor for reproduction of any material in any form except limited copying for educational non-profit use. Information for contributors, details relating to subscriptions or advertising rates contact Museums Aotearoa. Email: [email protected] Editorial

The wisdom of the elders – museological legacies

The museum sector has taken quite a hit recently, losing some extraordinary thinkers and visionaries. Canadian Michael Ames (1933-2006) leaves a legacy from various visits to New Zealand, influencing the different modes of bicultural practice evident in our museums. Stephen E. Weil (1928-2005) visited less frequently, but his fresh and challenging thinking about the real purpose of museums and the need to be able to assess and articulate their effectiveness and their worth, as opposed to their worthiness, has had far- reaching impacts on governing bodies and directors, established professionals and new entrants. Duncan Cameron (1930-2006), author of seminal articles on every museum studies reading list, spent 1995 at Massey University, a time cherished equally by him and the staff and students privileged to share it. New Zealand has incurred its own loss, too, with the passing of John Yaldwyn, who oversaw the first steps as our national institution was transformed into Te Papa, while firmly embedding its research tradition. These were all practitioners who made the time to think deeply about our field. We honour their wisdom and achievements.

Frontiers of knowledge

The loss of these museum stalwarts marks a generational shift. Their prophetic insights underline the need for directors today and in the future to develop new skills to meet changing political and operational environments, keeping in touch with shifting demographics in their communities, considering the impacts and possibilities of new technologies, exploring creative responses to funding pressures and reinforcing the commitment to community engagement and workforce diversity. Fortunately Elaine Heumann Gurian, another champion and friend of New Zealand museums, continues to inspire and challenge us. At this year's Museums Aotearoa Annual Conference she urged us to put our users into the 'driving seat', and to consider the potential of museums to contribute to the spiritual side of life and work.

As this issue of Te Ara shows, New Zealand colleagues are seizing opportunities for their own professional development, whether internships here and overseas or international exchanges. Meanwhile a growing confidence engendered by the maturity and dynamism of our museums and galleries sector may be inferred from New Zealand contributions to, and hosting of, international conferences. These moves to keep abreast of, even ahead of, developments overseas, while at the same time welcoming international colleagues' responses to museum initiatives here, earn us a claim to sit with others at the forefront of the global museums movement.

Risky business

However, in order to harness this energy and creativity to strengthen the sector, some kind of consolidated succession planning maybe necessary to ensure that leadership positions are filled. Given the recent trend for repositioning public museums within – or outside – local authority structures, more than ever they need leaders able to influence policy-level decision-making armed with sound knowledge of sector issues, museum operations and community needs and perceptions. The worrying number of vacancies at director level suggests that the sector cannot afford to be complacent. 2 museums aotearoa – te ara ra ilAci niesr:Cneayo h Aci ru” 25 Te Arctic anniversary:Centenaryofthe“Arctic Group” 18 Postcards from antiquity:Travellers, teachersandtreachery Mike Spedding Brian Gill Joanna Cobley Tony Rasmussen in alMsusa eta ou fcmuiylf 40 39 36 Museumsasacentralfocusofcommunitylife– Themuseumsectorstrategy–oneyearon TheProtected ObjectsAmendmentBill 2 International events Toi oTamaki 32 Fiona Hall attheAucklandArtGallery TheMarylynMayoInternship 4 Phillipa Tocker Museums Aotearoamatters Edward Siddle Greg Anderson Catherine Lomasand Housesoutsidethemuseum: Museum practice Editorial TheEssential Museum Noel Waite and Articles Elaine HeumannGurian Keynote paper Jane Legget aeMri nepeigHsoi os uem 56 55 54 Interpreting HistoricHouse Museums 47 MichaelAmes1933- 2006 50 JohnC.Yaldwyn 1929 -2005 42 Attinghamandbeyond –personalperspectives Kate Martin Writers, and Whalers: Witches, Book review 45 Susan Abasa Sandy Bartles Leadingfrom theEdge –2005PublicGalleriesSummit Obituaries OceansApart,MuseumsTogether – Angela Lassig Chanel Clarke Overseas Experience Tracy Puklowski Claire Freeman Contents at AucklandMuseum Designing thefutureofStateHousing Museums Aotearoa Conference 2006 Editor: JessicaFoyDonnelly A NewEnglandAdventure inSalem Congressthe International ofMaritimeMuseums. iag aiiadteTiaht uem27 Aitanga aHauitiandtheTairawhiti Museum Savage Crescent: volume 31issue1 13 May 2006

te ara – museums aotearoa 3 Keynote Paper

The Essential Museum

ELAINE HEUMANN GURIAN proposes a challenging new model of the museum, which empowers museum users to design their own mueum experiences and share them with others.

“Ethnologists, anthropologists, folklorists, economists, engineers, because they can programme more nimbly and with consumers and users never see objects. They see only plans, less fuss then can larger establishments. If, and actions, behaviours, arrangements, habits, heuristics, abilities, when, these small neighbourhood museums come collections of practices of which certain portions seem a little more to be regarded as a useful stop in the ordinary day durable and others a little more transient, though one can never say which one, steel or memory, things or words, stones or laws, of the local citizen, I believe that, like the library in guarantees the longer duration.” (Latour, 2000: 10) that very same community, the museum will have become essential. Introduction The essential museum would begin with four What if our profession created a museum in which assumptions: visitors could comfortably search for answers to their own questions regardless of the importance placed • all people have questions, curiosity, and insights on such questions by others? This paper will explore about a variety of matters large and small; the philosophy behind, and the ingredients and • satisfaction of internalised questions is linked to procedures necessary to produce, such a museum. more than fact acquisition and can include This new type of museum I wish to characterise as “essential.” (We may, in the end, have to settle for aesthetic pleasure, social interaction, and “useful.”) personal validation (recognition and memory);

I contend that most museums are “important” but • a museum could be a useful place to explore not “essential” establishments. I acknowledge that these; and the customary museum continues to be valuable for • visitors can turn their interest into satisfied some, beloved by its adherents, and defended discovery if the appropriate tools are present and against transformation by those who understand and celebrate its value. Nevertheless, I propose that there easy to use. is room for another kind of museum, one that arises Unfettered browsing of objects will be the main not from organised presentations by those in control, organising motif in this museum and to facilitate but one that puts control into the hands of the user. that, the majority of the museum's objects will be "People are somewhat exhausted after 25 years of blockbuster on view. The technique of visible storage installation exhibits being served up with these heavy tomes and yammering will be expanded and take on renewed importance. 'acousti-guides' and all the learned labels. These days, they want the opportunity to escape that kind of directed discovery." Attendant information, broadly collected, will be (Ramirez, 2001) considered almost as important as the objects themselves, and thus a database with a branching I suggest that while some useful experimenting with 4 programme of multiple topics will be available such control shifts within museums is already afoot, within easy reach. To access the database, a there is no current category of museum in which the technological finding aid will be on hand so that the visitor is intended to be the prime assembler of visitor can successfully sort through the multiplicity content, based on his or her own need. of available data. Visitors, once satisfied with their I am interested in transforming how users think of own search, can offer the results of their

museums aotearoa museum visits – from an “occasional day-out” to a investigation or their queries to subsequent visitors. – “drop-in service.” I believe small local museums are Everyone who enters has the possibility of becoming the best candidates for enabling this transformation

te ara both investigator and facilitator. Pursuing such a mission, the staff will concentrate and mixed-use spaces in response to theories of on acquiring and researching relevant objects, city planners (e.g. Jane Jacobs). Museums should locating, collecting and collating associated combine these steps with continued thorough- information from a broad array of sources, and going community liaison work and, ideally, free facilitating the public's access to the same. The basic admission. (Gurian, 2001, 2002a, 2002b). mediating role of the curator will have changed. The Reluctantly, I now concede that these measures, curator will not select the objects for view, nor while good, will not permanently expand the determine appropriate topics. Instead almost all audience very much. Museums of inclusion may be information and objects will be made available and possible only if the object-focused mission is the user will mentally combine them as he or she ELAINE HEUMANN GURIAN. separated from the equally traditional, but less well sees fit. The museum will become a visual non- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: understood, intellectual control of staff, substituting a ELAINE HEUMANN GURIAN judgmental repository in which many intellectual new mission satisfying a range of personal motivation directions are possible. No topic will be off-limits and by facilitating individual inquiry. I am not advocating no idea will be rejected by the staff as unworthy. that all museums need to change in this way. Rather, I The museum will grow with the input of its users. am saying that the role, potential relevance and Before the reader finds this model too radical, consider impact of the traditional museum, while useful, is that this is not dissimilar from the way shopping malls, more limited than I had formerly believed. the internet, or libraries currently operate. I wish to I concede that the public wants, and may even need, align the essential museum with these models. the time-honoured, often iconic, museums. I remain Why create a new kind of Museum? a member of that public. However, these museums' history is intertwined with social and economic Why create a new kind of Museum? In part because power. Carol Duncan and Alan Wallach describe museum visitors remain a narrow segment of our these as the “Universal Survey Museum,” (– one society – predominantly well-educated and relatively which operates as a ritual experience intended to affluent. Despite many different strategies to transmit the notions of cultural excellence –): “The broaden the user group, the majority of our citizens museum's primary function is ideological. It is meant remain outside our doors. If museums really wanted to impress upon those who use or pass through it to include more people from the lower, middle, and society's most revered beliefs and values.” “The working class, and more from minority, immigrant, visitor moves through a programmed experience that adolescent, high-school credentialed, and drop-out casts him in the role of an ideal citizen – a member groups than is currently the case, if museums are of an idealized 'public' and heir to an ideal, civilized inherently important civic spaces, then we must past.” “Even in their smallest details… museums propose new strategies. reveal their real function, which is to reinforce Latterly curators have seen their role criticised. In among some people the feeling of belonging and response they have generally changed from benevolent among others, the feeling of exclusion.” (Duncan but authoritarian leaders into benign and helpful and Wallach, 2004 pp. 52, 54, 62.) teachers. They have incorporated new exhibition If the view of Duncan and Wallach is only partially techniques and theories involving various learning correct, then it is not just object choice or modalities. (Gardner, 1983, Hein, 1998). Visitor intimidating architecture that is keeping the majority amenities that encourage seating, eating, researching, 5 of the public from feeling welcomed in museums, it shopping and socialising have helped most museums is the nexus between those objects, what is said evolve into more inviting gathering places. about them and by whom. Additional approaches have included: collecting The library model works created by under-represented peoples;

exhibition themes appealing to specific Why do some contemporary collecting institutions, museums aotearoa disenfranchised audiences; exhibition techniques like libraries, serve an audience both larger and – attractive to many ages, interests and learning styles; more diverse than museums, while others, for te ara example archives, do not? I believe that libraries' create an institution where all are welcome. In 1990 easy access and intention to provide non-prescriptive the American Library Association adopted the policy, service for its users are differences worth exploring “Library Services for the Poor,” in which it is stated, “it and emulating. The perception of the library as a is crucial that libraries recognize their role in enabling helping, rather than teaching, institution interests a poor people to participate fully in a democratic society, broader array of users. I propose that there is a link by utilizing a wide variety of available resources and strategies.” (ALA Handbook of Organization, 1999- between the public's greater use and appreciation of 2000, policy 61). This policy was adopted because libraries and the fact that they are funded as a there had been a shifting level of emphasis in the matter of course (rather than exception) by interpretation of “openness” since the establishment politicians. Changing museums so that they too of the public library. Open doors are very different serve a broader audience may result in enhanced from proactive service.” (de la Peña McCook, 2001:28) funding opportunities. While post-World War II museum and library rhetoric The process for acquiring library materials uses a relating to public access might have sounded similar, system equivalent to museums – but unlike libraries adopted transformative processes more museums, each item, once accessioned, is treated seriously and continuously. Libraries “examined how and presented similarly, more or less. Except for rare the set of techniques, developed and promoted by books, no value-laden hierarchy is imposed on the the Public Library Association allowed public collection or access thereto. Most importantly for this librarians to engage in user-oriented planning, paper, within a broad array of possibilities, the community-specific role setting, and self- determination of the topic for research is in the mind evaluation.” (de la Peña McCook, 2001: 34) Perhaps of the user, rather than pre-selected by the librarian. museum personnel are also ready to turn earlier Most library filing and access systems are ubiquitous. museum rhetoric into actions producing equally Most library patrons, having used another library, can inclusive outcomes. easily find their way and for those not completely The shopping mall – another useful model acclimated, there is the help-desk where a librarian is Shopping malls display materials chosen by others available if needed, but unobtrusive if not. To and placed in a visually pleasing and stimulating facilitate queries, libraries use knowledge locator environment. Like the contemporary museum, the systems – i.e. catalogues – that, once understood, mall incorporates additional amenities that facilitate allow users to find information they seek, in a manner browsing, strolling and eating, and offers ancillary and time that fits within their ordinary day. activities such as performances and social and civic Additionally, there are helping aids embedded in the events. The mall and the museum are both mixed- catalogue (such as key words) that allow the use spaces. Yet mall users comprise a much broader inexperienced user to succeed. So, unlike museum demographic than even library patrons. visits where the unfamiliar attendee tries to see “everything,” library patrons can, if they wish, drop-in While specific marketplace ambiances differ casually, focused on an errand that can be completed worldwide, all peoples, no matter what class or quickly. And because the library is free and is usually culture, are experienced shoppers and browsers. It is close-by, this pattern can be repeated often. a skill everyone has learned from infancy. By extension, early training in museum use may have Both libraries and museums were seen as august, 6 relevance in audience development. However, except quiet, imposing places. Why has the library for an occasional class visit, most young museum “democratised” more than the museum, and why visitors are the children of the current users. Aligning do both the citizen user and the politician funder museum-going with known elements of shopping feel that the library is more “essential”, deserving practice might expand that. more sustained support?

museums aotearoa “A central feature of public librarianship in the United It may be worth investigating shoppers' behaviour – States is that librarians have worked to develop a (motivational theory) further and the systems malls climate of openness by defining library policies to have created to satisfy shoppers' needs. Papers on te ara consumer motivation suggest a predictable What does a museum have? – Collections! sequence. The shopper decides that he or she After this encomium to other venues, what is the “needs” something and determines the possible special reason one would go to a museum at all? The location to fulfill that need. That need leads to museum's comparative advantage remains the visual, intention - the planning to go to that location – and and sometimes tactile, access to special physical then action. Once the shopper arrives, he or she things (some of them natural, some unique and begins a search which involves locating, browsing, original, and some purpose-built environments). The and comparing. The material can be visually museum remains one of the few places where one inspected, and often touched; shoppers process can come face-to-face with hard-to-find, sometimes their experience, combining and recombining what beautiful and potentially intriguing “stuff”. It is the they are seeing until they make a self-directed physicality of realia that makes museums special. decision: to buy or not to buy. While current technology makes it possible to see The system is codified and relatively easy to learn. almost any item on a computer screen, the computer The grouping of merchandise is often repeated shop cannot accurately reproduce the nuances, especially to shop (e.g. by size, by types or by price.) The of scale and texture, that individuals absorb in the purchase system is well-marked, easy to find and actual presence of the objects. It is the “evidence” in often separated from the inspection of merchandise. its tangible form that the public values. The wayfinding system is replicated in many locations, while browsing aids and amenities are Visible Storage conveniently sited. If the public wants access to things, then museums The placement of articles in shops is as carefully should provide access to lots of things; in fact, why controlled as the exhibitions presented in museums, not set up visual investigation of all, or almost all, a position substantiated by many marketing studies. that the museum holds? The exhibition practice of Yet I would point out that people, comfortable as “study”, “open” or “visible” storage attempts this experienced shoppers, feel empowered to by-pass – many contemporary examples exist. However their the shop-initiated preferred outcome and operate scale vis-à-vis the area allocated to prepared or instead on their own. Those shops preferring a more “curated” exhibitions is small. In this model I am restricted clientele intentionally impose barriers to suggesting that the amount of visual storage will be free exploration, much like traditional museums. substantial.

Although we may wish these activities were I understand that when browsing amidst organised unrelated, I suggest that the shopping and library displays in today's typical museum, the visitor is experiences have important elements in common already participating in a limited “free choice with each other, which might usefully become learning” space (Falk and Dierking, 2000). Most embedded in the new type of museum I propose – exhibitions allow visitors to wander at their own i.e. ubiquitous systems, free exploration and a large speed, and in their own pattern. Some organising volume of visual material on view. Most importantly structure is a comfort for the novice user, so I am not the decision to frequent a library or a mall originates suggesting random placement of objects. In the from an internalised impulse, question or need (even essential museum there would be “light a quest) sufficient to generate action. arrangement” – a framework– which might generally 7 mimic the museum's own collections storage strategy, Associating museums with shopping may offend i.e. by topic, by material, by culture or by artist. some – there are important differences as well. Nevertheless, I expect that when consumer Some portion of the collection display square footage motivation theory is better understood and the could be reserved for changing installations responsive

physical facility of the museum adjusted to satisfy to a timely idea. As an analogy, we have all visited museums aotearoa the individual's broader needs, the public will libraries that shelve detective novels together – change their thinking about museums' usefulness. alphabetically by author, yet some books from that te ara ELAINE HEUMANN GURIAN AT THE MUSEUMS AOTEAROA CONFERENCE 2006. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL TRUST

section are removed to appear on a new acquisitions I propose coupling the power of the object's shelf, among the librarian's choice of “good reads” or physical presence with the speed of the Internet, to a current cinema or holiday selection. encourage the visitor to investigate beyond just the information the museum has about a subject of To some extent I extol returning to a very old- interest. I am eager that the proprietary fashioned role for museums – publicly available information held within individual museums be visual storage. It is ironic that after a quarter century of narrative exhibition development, I recommend combined with related information from other museums re-focus on the non-narrative aspect of sources for the public to use. It is the availability of their collections, addressing collections care and linked (and often unexpected) information collections management systems. connected to the physical objects, and made readily available on the spot through an electronic Before the 1950's museums often presented much search engine, that would make the museum fully of their collections with very little interpretation. interesting to the visitor. Some visitors found that boring; others, bewildering. So why return to it now? What would The fundamental difference between what I now be different from and better than those previous recommend and past practice is a freer relationship static displays? between the object and its many possible spokespersons. I am interested in making museum Personally, I never found those installations tiresome. collections, and all associated information, accessible I have found that, even without associated in ways that are analogous to browsing in the stacks. information available, these old-fashioned visible Further I am interested in expanding our information storage installations were often the source of magic system to become like Wikipedia (with all its faults) – and wonder. Wandering in the Museum of a collection of accumulated explorations. Contemporary Zoology in the mid-60s with my own then small children was a delight. Their interest The object becomes the fulcrum around which all roving between cases and their associated flights of kinds of information revolve, allowing an individual's fancy are indelible experiences for me. exploration with the potential for cross-disciplinary connections like those referred to by Ian Wedde as But I am in the minority. For most people, “discourse spillage,” in which he whimsically uninterpreted collections were mystifying. This new suggests we could go to “an exhibition about war proposal adds a critical ingredient: information – lots for information about bicycles.” (Wedde, 2005: 286) of it, and readily connected to the objects on view. Originally, museums held hand-written collections Information system needed records containing only limited information: the Previously, most object-centred museums contained object's name, its ownership history, dimensions and only terse labels using highly refined and often material, and some attribution as to the maker. But technical words. There was no accompanying easy- what of the stories? Stories (as in oral histories), to-understand omnibus system encompassing both even when appreciated by curators, were rarely information about the objects and cross-disciplinary recorded, and often lost. That is changing in some references. Techniques such as user-friendly finding- quarters. Information now linked to cultural aid systems existed only in libraries, as card- artefacts of indigenous people often contains 8 catalogues with key words. associated stories. To be encyclopaedic, the essential Comparable systems are rarely available to museum museum should gather and include such stories. visitors. To be fair, without technology, these systems Janet Hoskins observed: “What I discovered, quite to were at best clumsy. While the technology needed my surprise, was that I could not collect the histories to create a fully responsive system for museum use of objects and the life histories of persons

museums aotearoa is not yet fully developed, there are experimental separately. People and the things they valued were – prototypes in various facilities that museums could so complexly intertwined they could not be employ to start down this road. disentangled.” (Hoskins, 1998: 2) te ara In collecting stories as relevant and useful data, the This could become a two-way street with these self- museum must become comfortable with transcribing same visitors leaving some imprint behind that seemingly antagonistic, competing or overlapping allows others to enjoy and participate in their new knowledge systems – “differing world-views,” discovery. Technology makes that possible. Young commonly polarised between “science” and “myth.” people are already creating and downloading The internet as an example contains “accurate,” personalized tours of museums on their Ipods and personal and potentially faulty information. The giving them to friends. internet makes opinion blogs, factual reporting and Essential reference tool skewed viewpoints all available simultaneously. Users themselves decide what they wish to see and how to To fulfill the need I have described, the essential regard it. Accordingly, users sometimes opt for museum will have to create an understandable “reliable” third parties to differentiate between, and reference aid that is replicated, at least in general choose among, the information gathered, just as outlines, in many other museums. Like the Dewey people use Consumer Reports when determining the Decimal System, imperfect as it may be, there are a right dishwasher to purchase. In the essential number of such models or analogous systems. The museum, the curator would be one of several phone book is available in most households to be “reliable” commentators whose views would always consulted when needed. The internet utilized by the be available as part of the record. computer literate is currently even more convenient, and is used often to find answers to questions in a Advocates of a fully open internet vigorously discuss timely manner. On the internet, Google's search the best path between inaccurate, offensive and engine is not much different than Yahoo's. Every slanderous material versus censorship that impedes railway has a timetable quite like each other's, and individual freedoms. The museum interested in such every newspaper reader can find sets of useful and an allied information system would have to wade timely information (e.g. weather forecasts or cinema into that murky stream and get wet. This prospect is programme times) within every issue. Individuals, not sufficient to deny the public such broader having learned how to use finding aids in one information. This very mixing of unique proprietary context, can assume that they will be available in information and the associated rumination by others other related venues. would make visiting a museum a new and intriguing experience. One of the quickest and cheapest ways Museums would have to invent, and then generally to begin this process would be to have the internet adopt, such a transferable system. Museum itself easily available in the exhibition space. professionals have been working on collections management systems based on agreed taxonomies I propose the creation of a visual and technological that might prove useful. The system may therefore support system allowing individuals to delight in the partially exist. However, regardless of the current state adventure of making individualized connections amidst of these electronic finding-aids, they are not generally real things. I am interested in supporting equally the known by or available to the museum visitor. visitor whose quest may be information gathering, and Collections care others with more subjective goals. “While studies show that some visitors may seek and experience A renewed focus on visual storage could be useful relaxation, social bonding, self-identity, self-esteem, at this time in our history. A report on the state of 9 and other outcomes from the museum experience, it American collections concludes that they are in is still relatively rare that museums choose to focus substantial disrepair (Heritage Preservation, 2005). explicitly on facilitating outcomes other than cognitive The museum community has mostly under-financed gain….What museums can uniquely offer is an collections care because, compared to other opportunity for individuals to encounter collections of activities, it has been a low priority. This funding

evocative artifacts, and a laboratory for understanding deficit may be exacerbated because grant funders, museums aotearoa the powerful connections between people and politicians and the public currently see no – things.” (Silverman, 2002: 75, 77) connection between collections care and public te ara service. Funders are right to believe that, once mission, preceding the usual “collecting, preserving, collections are conserved, they are generally locked exhibiting, and researching” menu. away, awaiting uncertain rebirth in an exhibition in To help create prepared staff who embrace this new the unknown future. No compelling case has been concept, museum trainers will have to rethink their argued for collections care for its own sake. course offerings, elevating customer-focused Unfocused collecting in many museums has been assistance to a valued endeavour. Students would compounded by problematic deaccessioning study such topics as motivation theory, enquiry- decisions, provoking public controversy. So the based technology, and oral history in addition to system I am proposing requires both substantial their academic discipline. collections care, and a focused mission with rigorous Space and design considerations necessary to decision-making about which collections to retain. In implement this new museum model this transformed museum where the objects fit within the mission, where most objects are visible To be welcoming, this new visible storage and (and sometimes touchable) and where abundant knowledge system will need to be coupled with attendant information is available, collections care responsive space design. Comfortable physical would achieve higher funding priority. amenities must include access to terminals, research tables and implements for close looking that fit the The role of the curator in the essential museum needs of visitors. These will be combined with To transform the museum, its leaders will have to platforms for story tellers or performers, and added take delight in helping patrons learn what they wish. interactive elements of interest to families. This will require staff to rethink their role, their passion and their skill set. I respect curatorial The shopping mall and the library have space scholarship and do not suggest discarding it, but I elements worth emulating. Their designs intentionally am recommending that their role changes from allow patrons to enter anonymously, and to sit and teacher and transmitter to facilitator and assister. stroll without committing to organized activity. These amenities allow 'lurkers' – unfamiliar users – to figure “Clearly, in this kind of contestable, unstable and multi-user out the services and customs required without knowledge domain, the museum-based researcher needs disenchantment as well sympathy, intellectual rigor as well as drawing attention to themselves. Access to facilities relativist flexibility, in order to find and disseminate the narratives such as toilets is available without entrance fees, and about collections that will entertain and inform audiences, and add malls and (increasingly libraries) offer opportunities to to the nation's useful store of scholarship.” (Wedde, 2005 p. 287) socialise while eating.

Exhibitions other than open storage should continue, In an earlier paper I wrote, “I have reluctantly but but they should occupy a smaller percentage of the unequivocally come to the conclusion that the first available square footage than at present, and their encounter with the ticket taker may be the single content and installation design should allow for greatest impediment to making our museums fully accessible”. (Gurian, 2005a) I believe that the frequent change. Rather than expensive exhibitions essential museum, like the library and the mall, must that take years to develop and remain unchanging for be free to enter. decades, the developer's identity should be revealed in smaller exhibitions that are more personalized and Library designs include other special elements that 10 involve open and evolving dialogue with the public. also fit within this new model. They include:

Having struggled for decades to get museums to see • Spaces both for small group interaction and for education as a priority, I am now suggesting that the private contemplation that do not interfere with word needs a changed definition – from one each other. implying the inter-relationship between teacher and • Help desks that are in a physical location that museums aotearoa student to one clearly denoting the facilitation of – individual inquiry. In the essential museum, fostering can be easily seen, but do not require the visitor individualised learning will be listed first in the to interact. te ara • Front doors that are convenient to public Children's Museum and the Anacostia transportation and foot traffic as well as parking Neighborhood Museum. However once famous, the for the automobile. pressure to maintain that high regard has sometimes blunted their ability to experiment further. • Hours of operation that suit neighbourhood users. Local history museums in many countries are • Acceptance of behaviour, clothing choice, sound experimenting with new forms while serving their level and styles of interaction that are consistent local public without fanfare. Britain's Gulbenkian with norms of courtesy within the individuals' prize always recognises a few, while my own current community. favourites are the Molndahl Museum in Sweden and the children's art museum in Rosario, Argentina, • And unobtrusive security systems. which have inspired much of this paper. Small museums as pioneers Ron Chew of the Wing Luke Museum has written, I believe that the museums most receptive to this “At the small museum, there are no inflated expectations, no transformation will be the smaller natural history, pretensions, and no awful waits. The exhibitions may be small and cultural, and local history museums. It is these rather somewhat idiosyncratic, but they mirror the small, somewhat unprepossessing and certainly underfunded places idiosyncratic world we know, close to home.” (Chew, 2002) that hold the most promise for me. I suggest we leave the great, national, omnibus, encyclopaedic Funding and Approbation museums alone to continue on their valued way. I do suggest, however, that the open storage that I would hope that this important transformation many are installing become richer by adding the would lead local governmental agencies to see that kind of information overlay and finding aids these newly dynamic institutions – right in their own suggested throughout this paper. backyard – are serving a real public need and should be supported. They will regard the essential local In the small museum the audiences, current and museum as a service that is as relevant and constant potential, are local, and can get to the museum as the local library. easily and often. The collection has local relevance but is usually neither rare nor valuable enough to And as this new form emerges, I hope that the need intrusive security. The associated stories are museum community will value the unique position easier to find because they often reside in local of these small local museums, create a separate memory. And these institutions have particular niche that has criteria all its own and begin to develop a rhetoric that no longer compares them importance to local schools. These local museums with the much larger iconic museums. have the advantage of being below the radar screen and thus can experiment with less risk. They can Summary become relevant to the people who use them with To create more inclusive museums, I believe that we more ease than large museums. must change our basic mindset and emulate aspects Over the last century there have been many of those institutions deemed essential by a large examples of smaller museums which have cross-section of our citizenry. These include libraries experimented. They often had charismatic directors and shopping malls. In order to be regarded as with vision and talented devoted staff. These essential, museums would have to understand, 11 institutions became the incubators of new ideas respect and facilitate each visitor's individual quest which were later emulated when deemed to be safe and applaud a broad motivation for entering. and no longer novel. To become essential, the museum will provide visible Well-known American experiments include: the access to holdings in a lightly organized manner,

New Museum, the Exploratorium, the Wing Luck concentrate on access to information systems that are museums aotearoa Museum, the African Art Museum, the Newark easy to understand, repeatable and transferable. In – Museum under John Cotton Dana, the Boston addition to making the object and the associated te ara proprietary information available, the museum will Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of accumulate and merge information that resides Meaning, Walnut Creek, CA, Alta Mira Press. elsewhere – in books, records, movies, slides, etc, – so GARDNER, H. (1983) Frames of mind: the theory of that each object becomes the impetus for unexpected multiple intelligences, New York, NY, Basic Books. exploration. Finally, museums would have to include ways for the public to add information to the system GURIAN, E. H. (2001) Function Follows Form: How Mixed-Used Spaces in Museums Build Community. and respond to the information left by others. Curator, 44, 87-113. Physical layouts and concomitant training will be needed to ensure visitor's ease upon entry, GURIAN, E. H. (2005a) Free At Last, the Case for welcoming attitudes among staff, help available only Free Admission. Museum News, 84, 33-35, 61-66. when needed, and clear ways to learn how to use the GURIAN, E. H. (2005b) Threshold Fear. IN MACLEOD, system by simply watching. S. (Ed.) Reshaping Museum Space: Architecture, This proposal turns museums upside down, Design, Exhibitions. London, Routledge. transferring authority to the visitor and transforming HEIN, G. E. (1998) Learning in the museum, New the staff, who have been knowledge accumulators, York, Routledge. preservers, and translators, into knowledge brokers HERITAGE PRESERVATION (2005) A PUBLIC TRUST and sharers. Some museums have experimented AT RISK: The Heritage Health Index Report on the with bits and pieces of this in the past. I am certain State of America's Collections. Washington, DC, that this new system could – and should – be Heritage Preservation and the Institute of Museum created, wholesale, in the future. and Library Services.

Elaine Heumann Gurian has made a significant HOSKINS, J. (1998) Biographical Objects: How contribution to museums in the United States and Things tell the Stories of People's Lives, New York internationally, including serving as a senior and London\, Routledge. consultant during the development of the Museum INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Her collected (2006) Webwise 2006. Los Angeles, CA, IMLS. writings have recently been published by Routledge as Civilising the museum (2006). JACOBS, J. (1961) The death and life of great American cities, New York, Random House. This paper was the keynote address at the Museums Aotearoa Annual Conference 2006, LATOUR, B. (2000) The Berlin Key Or How To Do Words With Things. IN GRAVES-BROWN, P. M. (Ed.) Napier, April 20, 2006. A version of this article will Matter, Materiality and Modern Culture. London and appear in The Manual of Museum Learning, edited New York, Routledge. by Barry Lord and published by Alta Mira Press, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. NISO FRAMEWORK ADVISORY GROUP (2004) A Anticipated publication date is late 2006. FRAMEWORK OF GUIDANCE FOR BUILDING GOOD DIGITAL COLLECTIONS, National Information References Standards Organization, Bethesda, MD, 2nd edition, CHEW, R. (2002) In Praise of the Small Museums. http://www.niso.org/framework/framework2.pdf. Museum News, 36-41. RAMIREZ, J. (2001) New York museum opens vaults 12 DE LA PEÑA MCCOOK, K. (2001) Poverty, to public, Associated Press, January 23, 2001, Democracy and Public Libraries. IN KRANICH, N. (Ed.) Libraries & Democracy: The Cornerstones of SILVERMAN, L. H. (2002) The Therapeutic Potential Liberty. American Library Association. of Museums as Pathways to Inclusion. IN SANDELL, R. (Ed.) Museums, Society, Inequality. London and DUNCAN, C. & WALLACH, A. (2004) The Universal Survey Museum. IN CARBONELL, B. M. (Ed.) New York, Routledge. Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts. museums aotearoa WEDDE, I. (2005) Making Ends Meet: Essays and – Malden, MA, Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Talks 1992-2004, Wellington, New Zealand, Victoria FALK, J. H. & DIERKING, L. D. (2000) Learning from University Press. te ara involvement. Asignificantcollection ofC&Cobjects exhibition developmentandencourage community C&C communityandtoshare informationabout introduce theexhibitionproject teamtothewider teaeventswerea seriesofafternoon heldto history. and addtoemerginginterest indepartmentstore customers stilllivinginthePalmerstonNortharea, experiences ofalargenumberex-staff and store's founding,offering thechancetodrawon exhibitions. 2004markedthecentenaryof C&C) heraldedashiftinthefocusofcommunity icon ofCollinson&CunninghameLtd.(hereafter The opportunitytopresent thehistoryoflocalretail public programmes. contact aftertheopeningwaslimitedtoafew eight monthspriortoopening.Ongoingcommunity development, typicallyoccurringbetweensixand consultation occurred atthe 'front end'ofexhibition supplied bythecommunity, virtuallyallofthe heavily object-basedanddependentuponresources ensure theirsuccess.Because theseexhibitionswere investment inbuildingcloseworkingrelationships to members (particularlytheleaders),andsubstantial heavily uponactiveconsultationwithcommunity title ofthe ethnic communityexhibitionswere rununderthe specific purpose.Between1998and2003,eight in 1997,assigningdedicatedgalleryspaceforthis developed incollaborationwithcommunitygroups Te Manawafirstgaveseriousattentiontoexhibitions Community-based exhibitionsatTe Manawa Designing Crescent: Savage Houses outsidethemuseum: See,forexample,Lancaster, W., 1995. 1 the future of State Housing State of future the University Press. Going Up,Down: History. 1 In thetwelvemonthspriortoexhibition, New York: LeicesterUniversityPress and Laurenson, H.,2005. Origins series. Theseexhibitionsrelied New ZealandDepartment Stores The DepartmentStore,ASocial . Auckland exhibition in2003. History atTe Manawa)proposed theSavageCrescent Studies Department(formerlyCuratorofSocial Dr NoelWaite oftheUniversityOtagoDesign Te ManawaandOtagoUniversity development stageonward. involved multiplepartnerships,from theconcept exhibitions. TheSavageCrescent project similarly work withotherorganisationsindevelopingcertain concept of'community',andarenewed driveto Grand OldLadyofRetailing in 1986provided anobvious startingpoint. and ephemeradonatedtotheManawatuMuseum Assistant todevelopexhibition conceptsin2004. supported hisresearch andfundedaResearch/Design at TeManawa,PalmerstonNorth a novelapproachtocommunityexhibitions outline andTONYRASMUSSEN NOEL WAITE TheDunedinteamconsistedofthecurator, designerandcontributing 2 PREVIEW INDECEMBER2005. OF HOUSINGSTEVEMAHAREYOPENEDTHESPECIALRESIDENTS' LOCAL MPANDFORMERSAVAGE CRESCENTRESIDENTANDMINISTER Curator Tony Rasmussen,anexperiencedcurator ofcommunityexhibitions. Te Manawa's HeadofExhibitionServices,exhibitionstaff, andAssistant staff from theDepartment ofDesignStudies,and,inPalmerstonNorth, 2 An OtagoResearch Grant ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: NOELWAITE entailed abroader The article

te ara – museums aotearoa 13 VIDEO LOOP NEAR EXHIBITION ENTRANCE OFFERED THE OPPORTUNITY TO DRIVE AROUND SAVAGE CRESCENT AS IT IS TODAY. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: NOEL WAITE

seemed the perfect focal point for this remarkable matrix of anniversaries around New Zealand's built heritage. More importantly for the exhibition curation and design, it enabled exploration of contemporary shifts in cultural heritage away from a narrowly formal and stylistic architectural history towards a broader social history that includes the stories and experiences of the people who designed, built and lived in these buildings.3

How exactly did Savage Crescent intersect with this “commemorative matrix”? Savage Crescent was instigated in 1937 and built 1939-46 as part of the Since two project teams were working on the first Labour Government's State house programme. exhibition, a clear contractual agreement and regular It is a unique example of welfare state modernism, communication were critical success factors. integrating architecture, urban planning and Palmerston North City Council and Housing landscaping in a meticulously planned garden New Zealand suburb, nationally recognised for its social and architectural importance. Savage Crescent is Te Manawa is a Council Controlled Organisation, particularly notable for the variety of house designs and thus enjoys a close working relationship with and styles represented, the result of an innovative the Palmerston North City Council (PNCC). In this architectural competition organised by the New case, the Planning Department assistance enabled all Zealand Institute of Architects. residents and property owners in the Savage Crescent precinct to receive personalised invitations While the State housing programme was a response for the residents' preview, along with additional to a pressing housing crisis, its implementation was copies of the Council's Savage Crescent Design informed by a modernist desire to create community Guidelines. The Global Information System Unit housing appropriate to the Machine Age. This provided a high-resolution aerial photograph of the meant industrialised production to a high standard precinct, which features prominently within the and the application of Home Science principles to exhibition. Housing New Zealand's celebration of the the interior design. This proved an enduring mix and centenary of State housing included commissioning Savage Crescent remains a vibrant community and Ben Schrader's history of state housing in New architecturally intact today, even though more than Zealand (2005) and running an architectural 70% of the homes are privately owned. Recognising competition to design State housing for the 21st this, PNCC commissioned a cultural heritage report, century. Both the book and the winning entries were followed by a Conservation Plan in 1994. In the included in the exhibition. same year the Manawatu Branch of the Historic A heritage matrix for Savage Crescent Places Trust prepared a Savage Crescent Heritage Trail. In 1996, the Council commissioned Design Fortuitously, 2005 was the centenary year for both Guidelines for the area, which were distributed to State housing in New Zealand and the New Zealand 14 residents. This was one of the first applications of a Institute of Architects, the Year of the Built heritage designation to a precinct (rather than Environment and the start of activities individual buildings), as well as the use of Design commemorating the jubilee of the Historic Places Guidelines in place of compulsory regulation. Trust in 2006. As the most complete realisation of the first Labour Government's ideal of a garden-city External curation and design style State housing precinct, Savage Crescent museums aotearoa The exhibition design was approached as a 'wicked – 3 Ben Schrader's book also reflects such a shift with its extensive inclusion problem' in the sense outlined by Horst Rittel: of oral histories. 'Wicked problems have no definitive formulation, but te ara Theinclusionofanexpandableportraitwall,so • inclusionofanaerialphotograph oftheprecinct • filmingofavideoloop(physical andeditorial)of • at Te Manawatosupporttheexhibition: address thedearthofspecificexistingcollections of thegallery. Three strategieswere adoptedto invitation forvisitorstomovebeyondtheconfines and theexistenceofHeritageTrail provided an The proximity ofSavageCrescent totheMuseum intact andwithinwalkingdistanceoftheMuseum. reproduced, giventhatalmostallbuildingswere problems –towhatextent diditneedtobe The exhibition'sarchitectural contentposedspecific of theircommunity. current residents toengageinthefuture directions (Simon, 1996:111)–wasoffered asameansfor 'changing existingsituationsintopreferred ones' future-oriented activity. Design–definedas process, aswellanexplanation ofdesignasa community involvementintheheritageplanning involved historiesofStateandprivateparticipation, diachronic axisofpast,present andfuture. This axis wascomplementedwithaconventional adopted forthecontent.Thissynchronic horizontal split betweenpublicandprivatehistorieswas stories ofSavageCrescent residents, asimpleinitial history ofStatehousinginNewZealandandthe In order toaccommodatebothabriefcontextual design andcommunityengagement. the SavageCrescent exhibitionintermsofcuration, This articlewillconsiderthekeyissuesaddressed in integrative useofknowledgefrom allrelevant fields. and recognises theneedforacollectiveand fundamental indeterminacyinmostdesignproblems Buchanan, 1995:14).Thisapproach recognises the to theformulationofasolution'(quotedin every formulationofawickedproblem corresponds developed during thecourseofexhibition. and information resources onSavage Crescent that oralhistoryinterviewscould beconducted floorplan layoutsanddesigns alternate which couldbereconfigured toconsider development offourseparatehouseplanjigsaws enlarged tocoveratabletopandthe the current SavageCrescent precinct. their contributions. terms ofenvisagingthefinalexhibitedoutcome the practicalitiesofattendingpublicmeetingsandin exhibition processes difficult tonegotiate,bothfrom to participate,theyoftenfoundthemuseumand Manawa. Whilecommunitiesshowedawillingness coordinating previous communityexhibitionsatTe was alsoanexperimentalresponse toobservations curation, butit pragmatic considerationsofexternal This approach wasdetermined primarilyby quantified andscheduled. exhibition blueprintmeansthatthiscanbe development ofadesigntemplateaspartthe both exhibitionandcollectionplanning,butthe process. Thisapproach hasobviousimplicationsfor Research isthenanongoing collection-oriented time ofitshighestpublicprofile –theexhibition. it proactively enhancesthe collectionduringthe contingency ofcuratorialresearch. Mostimportantly, community knowledgeandinputthe completion. Itexplicitlyacknowledgesthevalueof the curator'sanddesigner'sroles beyondinstallation added tomuseumresources. Thisapproach extends histories conductedduringtheexhibition,whichhas oral historiesencouragedparticipationin photographs ofresidents with excerptsfrom existing The inclusionofaportraitwallcontaining attention anddiscussionatthepreview opening. members ofthecommunity, attractingconsiderable recognition andengagementforexistingpast The videoandaerialphotographprovided pointsof the inclusionofanoutsidedesigner addedtothe curatorsareWhile external notunusual inmuseums, Design dialogues ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: NOELWAITE TABLETOP AERIALPHOTOGRAPHENABLEDEVERYONE TOMAPTHEPRECINCT. Whileit isbeyondthescopeofthisarticle,there wouldseemto 4 of graphicscenariosor storyboards. consultation –withvisualising likelyexhibitionoutcomesintheform be arole fordesignersinassistingthe community–incasesofprior 4

te ara – museums aotearoa 15 developments in the area. While this accommodated the exhibition to the larger space, in practice it entailed considerable redesign of the exhibition layout. The result was a more coherent pathway through the exhibition, but transformed a graphically intense exhibition into something sparer and more minimalist in effect.

Building connections with communities

The Curator had earlier made contact with several long-term residents, who featured in the exhibition. However, for practical purposes, it was agreed that further liaison work undertaken with the residents would be most effectively managed from Te Manawa. Savage Crescent: Designing the Future of State Housing was opened by local MP and former Housing Minister and resident of Savage Crescent, Steve Maharey, on 11th December, 2005. A special preview for residents and property owners held immediately before the

BETTY EVANS AT THE GATE OF HER MANSFORD PLACE HOME, JUST OFF SAVAGE official opening evoked many spontaneous and CRESCENT. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: THE IAN MATHESON CITY ARCHIVES, PALMERSTON NORTH. convivial exchanges. The preview thus served as complexity of this exhibition process. The designer both an invitation to, and a platform for, ongoing was Alice Lake-Hammond, a Design Studies Masters dialogue with the community. student completing her thesis on exhibition design The Savage Crescent project is a good example of why supervised by Dr Waite. The Savage Crescent project we should think broadly when defining a 'community'. was one of three case studies for her thesis. This You can think of a community as a set of concentric enabled close collaboration between curator and circles, with the immediate community being, in this designer in the off-site development of exhibition case, the people currently living within the physical concepts, with the designer having access to limits of the Savage Crescent precinct. The next circle research in the early stages of the process. comprises those people who still live in the city or Communication with the exhibition team at Te region, but who have had some association with Manawa was primarily via a blueprint document Savage Crescent through friends or family. A third with critical paths and a master spreadsheet that circle might be those people who have long since could be updated. moved away but who, on hearing that there is going to be an exhibition, are keen to visit or share their This designer/curator dialogue also allowed for memories of the place. Consider this comment from a modification of the exhibition design in response to former resident now based in Christchurch: feedback from the Te Manawa Management Committee. The major changes were a relocation A big feature of the Savage Crescent development, in 16 from a smaller gallery to a larger one, and the those days, was the huge area of vacant land in the middle of the area. Initially, in my time there, the grass consideration for potential future use of content in a was left to grow and cut for hay using a horse drawn longer term social history development at the harvester, similar to the one depicted on the Museum. The curator and designer therefore Aulsebrook biscuit tins. We used to play in the long adopted a modular approach to the exhibition grass and make “rooms” in which to hide. In later

museums aotearoa design around the three-part diachronic split of the years I remember the area being sown in grass which – history of State housing and Savage Crescent, was mown regularly and swings and slides were current community activities and future installed in one corner. te ara years. Formerresidents whovisittheexhibitionand about organisingareunion withinthenexttwo with theSavageCrescent area havealready set and howtheyseefit.Peoplewith acloseconnection to enjoytheexhibitionandaddtheirvoiceswhen constraints. Insteadthecommunityhavebeenable and tryingtoexplainmuseumpracticescanimpose preparation, communicatinganexhibitionconcept community involvementwhere, alongsideexhibition exhibition tookthepressure off front-end to, andimmediatelyafter, theopeningof The deliberateinvolvementofthecommunityclose competition designsondisplay. reflected inthewinning2005Housing NewZealand in housingdesignsincethe1940s–changes that provided anopportunity toreflect onchanges complemented bytheinteractivehousedesigngame changing requirements ofthearea. Thiswas precinct butfeltthatithad notkeptpacewiththe central commonscriticaltotheidentityof surveys whichshowedthatresidents considered the The choiceofsitealsoresponded torecent planning prompt forspeculationabout future development. It wasnotintendedasprescriptive, butmerely a informing theoriginalconceptofSavageCrescent. contemporary response to theuniversalideals Savage Crescent. Thisexample waschosenasa as anadditiontothecentralcommonsarea in Studies IndustrialDesignstudentswassuggested prototype developedbyOtago UniversityDesign local andonenational.Aninclusive Specifically, it offered twodeparture points,one active participationinshapingthatfuture. offered afurtherpublicspaceforspeculationand a sectiondedicatedtothefuture ofthecommunity The inclusionwithintheexhibitionof he andhisfamilyhadmovedoutofthearea. this case,thelate1940s)andyetbyearly1950s, The writerclearlyhasvividchildhoodmemories(in Inclusivedesigninvolvesthe ofproducts thatare accessible toas 5 abilities. many peopleasreasonably possible,benefitingpeopleof allagesand 5 playground Cambridge, M.I.T. Press. SIMON, H.1996. TheSciencesoftheArtificial, State HousinginNewZealand, Auckland:Reed. SCHRADER, B.2005.We of CallitHome:AHistory Channel 4Equinoxtelevisionprogramme. 1995.Designing DreamMachines. POWELL, D. Mass.: MIT: 3-20. Idea ofDesign:ADesignIssuesReader. Cambridge, Thinking', inV. Margolin&R.Buchanan (eds).The ProblemsinDesign 1995.'Wicked BUCHANAN, R. References Palmerston Northuntil16July, 2006. of StateHousing The exhibition in thedevelopmentofcommunity-basedexhibitions. Manawa, PalmerstonNorth.Hehasaspecialinterest Tony RasmussenisTeam Leader:SocialHistoryatTe History, ExhibitionDesignandPrintCulture. University ofOtago.Hisresearch interests are Design Noel Waite isaLecturer inDesignStudiesatthe Buchanan, 1995:15). they are fullyresponsible fortheiractions'(quotedin wicked problem solverhas norighttobewrong – Horst Rittel'sformulationofwickedproblems: 'The perhaps worthremembering thefinalmaximof made withregard tocommunityinvolvement,itis rather thanitsconclusion.Whateverdecisionsare exhibition asthestartofcommunityconsultation and explicitlycontingentapproach cantreat the flexible andmulti-layered outcome. Finally, aholistic dialogue betweencuratoranddesignerisvitalfora particularly withregard curation,genuine toexternal to theexhibitionprocess. To minimizeanyvolatility, reverse,' adescriptionthatcouldperhaps beapplied Powell suggestedthat'Designislikeanexplosionin contextual resources onthetopic.DesignerDick planning, canactasacollectionpointforfurther development, theexhibition,withappropriate adopting afuture-oriented approach tocollection collection tomakeasuccessfulexhibition.By heritage neednotreside primarilyintheMuseum's The SavageCrescent project demonstratedthat Conclusion to thereunion organiser. make contactwithTe Manawastaff are referred on THE PRECINCT. AN EXPLICITCONNECTIONTOTHECOUNCIL'SDESIGNGUIDELINESFOR THE STANDARDISED LETTERBOXWAS BOTHANICONICDEVICEAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: NOELWAITE Savage Crescent:Designingthefuture continues atTe Manawa,

te ara – museums aotearoa 17 te ara – museums aotearoa 18 1994.704 CANTERBURY MUSEUM,REF. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: SKIN, MACEDONC.315BC HERACLES, CLADINALION HEAD OFTHEYOUNG (OBVERSE) SHOWINGTHE ALEXANDER III“THEGREAT” SILVER TETRADRACHMOF article holidays were spenteither ondigs of thesetwotravellerswasateacherwhose Zealand andAustralianmuseumcollections. catalogue Samianware (circa 50-300AD)inNew mission wasaself-fundedresearch project –to of Sydney'sNicholsonMuseum.Theiracademic archaeological artistconnected withtheUniversity stumbled literallyuponavisitingarchaeologist and uncovered sometreasures. AttheOtagoMuseumI extent Ifeltlikewas“goingonadig”.certainly collections inNewZealandmuseums.To some collection ofstoriesaboutclassicalantiquity motivations ofmuseumdonorsare keytothis The aspirationsofthemuseumstaff andthe treachery Travellers, teachersand Postcards fromantiquity: Museum, theJamesLogieMemorialCollectionat featured are theOtagoMuseum,Canterbury Britain and most of western Europe).Britain andmostofwestern ancient Greece, andtheRomanEmpire (including includes Mesopotamia(Iraq),Persia(Iran),Egypt, 1000 BC–5thcenturyAD.Mygeographicalscope antiquity” toencompassobjectsfrom theperiod In thecontextofthisarticleIuseterm“classical and quickly. a betterunderstandingaboutclassicalantiquity, “treasure hunters”. tutorial differentiating archaeologists and (yes, really), provoking apolitebutthorough projects. “OhjustlikeIndiana Jones!”Iexclaimed ThecharacterisationofIndiana Jonesisacompositeofarchaeologists, 3 Participatinginanarchaeological digisthe bestwayforbudding 2 AnothertermforSamianisterrasigillata,althoughthisnowusedasa 1 Archaeological InstituteofAmerica,tobethemostfrequently cited page. fossickingfound http://www.archaeological.org,Internet thewebsiteof whole familytopartakesuchasdinosaurdigs locatedinMontana,USA. accommodation. Somedigorganisersprovide anopportunityforthe volunteer labour. Volunteers generallyneed tofundtheirtravel,mealsand and/or summer months.Manyorganiseddigsaccept studentinterns groups. Whilethedurationofdigs varies, theseasonusuallycovers organised byuniversities,museums,culturalorganisations andhistorical archaeologists togetatasteofthe field.Literally. Excavationsare usually Gaul. (H.Beames,emailcommunication,27MarchEastern 2006). into thethree mainproduction centres,and namelyCentral,Southern such asArretine ware. ThefabricsofSamianware are usuallydividedup more generalisttermincorporatingnotonlySamianbutalsootherfabrics 3 It wastimeformetoacquire 2 New Zealandcollectionsfromtheclassicalworld fossicksforthestoriesbehindsome JOANNA COBLEY 4 or research The museums 1 One their collections,ororganisingothers'giftsof educate theircommunity, expressed through donating Otago Museum.Allthree menhadadesire to him toacquire ancientEgyptianartefactsforthe time postinginCairo duringWorld War IIenabled travel andpurchase ancient artefacts.Waite's war- philanthropic ideals.Felsand Braschcouldafford to mercantile initiative,were certainlymotivatedby academic knowledge,withperhapsahintof travels inexoticandancientlandspursuitof insets) epitomisedaperiodofgreat adventure. Their a lesserextent,CharlesBrasch(1909-1973)(see Lieutenant ColonelFred Waite (1885-1952)and,to Fels(1858-1946)and These collectors,suchasWilli collectors behindtheantiquitiesthatstruckmemost. Egyptian mummy. Yet itwasthestoriesof vases, Romancoins,replica busts,amuletsandthe students oftheClassicscouldgetupclosetoGreek informative labelsforthegeneralpublictoread, many Empire andEgyptasateaching collection.With wide rangeofobjectsfrom Greece, Crete, theRoman Zealand. antiquities collectionisreputedly thelargestinNew Containing over4000objects,theOtagoMuseum's Travellers UniversityofWellingtonVictoria (VUW),andTe Papa. University ofCanterbury, theClassicsMuseumat TheantiquitycollectionsIvisitedincludedartefacts from thefollowingbroad 4 and Turkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Braidwood). which hewasforced toleave,instead channellinghisenergiesintoIran in Iraqduringthe1950swere cutshort byaworseningpoliticalsituation (1907 -2003)wasamore contemporary figure whosesignificant studies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Belzoni). RobertBraidwood archaeologist, explorer and Egyptologist(see Another exampleisGiovanniBattistiaBelzoni(1778-1823), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Chapman_Andrews). expeditions almostalways“nearlyendedindeath”(see director oftheAmericanMuseumNaturalHistory. Itissaidthathis Chapman Andrews (1884-1960)explorer, naturalist,palaeontologistand palaeontologists andadventurers from thepast.ExamplesincludeRoy Classical Period(500BC -thefallofRomanEmpire circa 476AD). 1000 BC),theGeometric toArchaic Period(1000BC-500BC)and the periods: theNeolithicPeriod(6000-3000BC), theBronze Age(3000BC- The PeoplesoftheWorld gallery presents a be muchmore modestinqualityandquantity. the Museum'sholdingsfrom theancientworldwould thesecollectors to thepeopleofDunedin.Without artefacts totheMuseumforeducationalbenefit Oriental Studies (Quigley, 2005). Thoughtsofan history attheUniversityofLondon's Schoolof Egypt in1932,andstudiedArabic andEgyptian interests. Braschparticipatedinexcavations grandfather, Fels,fostered these life-long Willi Ancient World. Childhoodyearsspentwithhis for anOxford lawdegree, preferring tostudythe BraschoverrodeDunedin born, hisfather'swishes Brasch (1909-1973) Poet andshort-timearchaeologist: Charles (Anson, 2005). illuminated manuscriptsandrare firsteditions Otago libraryreceived valuablebooks,including Burmese andJapanesematerial.TheUniversityof Persian,Indian, on Fels'donationofTibetan, Likewise theMuseum'sOrientalstrengths draw of OtagoMuseum'snumismaticsholdings. from ancientGreece, RomeandBritain,thecore 80,000 objects.Theseincludedover5,000coins beneficiary ofhisextensivecollectionover business orpleasure. TheMuseum becamethe Greece, Crete andtheFarEast,whetherfor Otago Museumwhentravellingthrough Europe, wealth, Felsactedasapurchasing agentforthe Showing hiscommitmenttoDunedin'scultural 2005). committee (Anson,2005;Strathern, Skinner, and sitting onthemanagement the salaryofakeeperanthropology, H.D. growing ethnographiccollection, contributingto overseeing fund-raisingforawingtohouse ethnographic collectionendowmentfund, Museum. Theseincludedestablishingan 1893 initiatedsomekeyprojects fortheOtago ethnographic anddecorativeartefactsin Ltd), Felsbuiltasignificantcollectionof father-in-law's businesses(Hallenstein'sandD.I.C his adultlife.Whileservingasdirector ofhis coins. Hiscollectinghabitremained throughout As achild,Felsstartedcollectingstampsand (1858 -1946) Trader, collectorandphilanthropist: WilliFels (Anson, 2006). Management Committee untilhisdeathin1952 the OtagoMuseumandsaton theMuseum archaeologyhonorary keeperofMiddleEastern at space (Anson,2006).Inretirement, Waite became the Museum,thenlackingadequate storage indicate thatWaite's 'bounty'posedproblems for Museum (Anson,2006;Green, 2005).Records acquiring over2000artefactsfortheOtago Waite wasbasedinCairo from 1941-1944, Rotary, ruralpoliticsandfarming.InWorld War II histories alongsideotherpublicdutiesinthe return toNewZealandhewrote variouslocal New ZealandersatGallipoli(1919).Uponhis World War IhewascommissionedtowriteThe Zealand inbothWorld Wars. Atthecloseof Lieutenant ColonelFred Waite servedforNew Fred Waite (1885-1952) Soldier andhistorian:LieutenantColonel training. acquired duringhistimeas anarchaeologist-in- while theOtagoMuseumreceived theobjects Hocken Libraryhisbooks,papersandartworks, He bequeathedtheUniversityofOtagoand collecting ashewent. throughout Europe, theMiddleandFarEast, family wealth,hewasabletotravelextensively enthusiasm forancientcivilisations.Blessedwith Brasch's priorities,yethemaintainedhis Writing andpublishingpoetrywere always Anson, 2006). (http://www.ees.ac.uk/home/home.htm to theMuseum Society's award ofartefactsfrom Tell elAmarna large, butheinfluencedtheEgyptianExploration His personalcollectionofantiquitieswasnot of theOtagoMuseumandHockenLibrary. Otago, heservedonthemanagementcommittee briefly inBritain.Asalecturer attheUniversityof business inDunedin,althoughhelatertaught returned toNewZealandassistthefamily archaeology career were soondisspelled.Brasch

te ara – museums aotearoa 19 20 te ara – museums aotearoa OF CANTERBURY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: UNIVERSITY COLLECTION. JAMES LOGIEMEMORIAL STUDENTS INACTIONAT THE and from theMediterranean. walls papered withacademicgraffiti suchasessays, exaggerated versionofanacademic'soffice withthe struck meimmediately. Ihadhalfexpectedan Classics MuseumandCanterbury'sLogieCollection much younger. ThelackofdidacticlabelsatVUW's Canterbury andOtagoMuseums.Theywere also visited were smallerstillwhen compared tothoseof The twouniversityteachingcollectionswhichI Teachers exhibition ofEgyptiantombarts. BC totheRenaissance,andacomprehensive galleries displaycoinsandmedalsdatingfrom 350 entertain themuseumvisitor. Today's exhibition artefacts, curiosandreplicas toeducateand galleries anddisplaycabinetswere crammedwith practice,Haast's Following etablishedVictorian Pacific cultures viatheethnographic collections. the sciencesandnaturalhistory, andMäori civilisation, colonials” aboutthehistoryofwestern ideals–to“educatethe contemporary Victorian Rosetta Stone.Haast,likeFels,wasdrivenby well ascastsofGreek and Romanstatuesandthe such astheEgyptianmummy, coins specimens, thenlatertaongaMäori,forartefacts first exchangedmoabonesandnativebird Utilising hisEuropean museumconnections,Haast founding director SirJuliusvonHaast(1822-1887). built onthetradesandexchangesmadeby Canterbury Museum'snumismaticcollectioncomprisesapproximately 800 8 Thefollowing themerooms were listedintheCanterburyMuseum's1906 7 InMay1874,Prof.oftheCivicMuseumMilan,sentfour E.Cornalia, 6 Fyfe2006. 5 Africa." JenniferQuérée, SeniorCurator, DecorativeArts,pointsout,“this and Medieval,collected byhimatConstantineandCarthage,North 2006). In1875,MrA.R.Creyke sent in"75bronze coins,Carthaginian during theperiodOct-Dec1872,bya"Master JohnClark"(Quérée, Museum's earliestrecord isfor"oneGreek coin"(unspecified),gifted Greek, RomanandByzantinecoins, Romancoinspredominating. The Mäori andNewZealand. Annual Report:fossils,minerals,mammals,ethnographical, sculpture, skins sentbyJuliusvonHaasttheprevious year(Quérée,2006). These were inexchangeforseveralconsignmentsofmoabonesandbird cases ofmaterial,including468bronze andsilvercoins,mostlyRoman. 5 Rome, Egypt,Cyprus from ancientGreece, “interest andmerit” 1,500 objectsof holds approximately Canterbury Museum In contrastthe This collectionwas 8 6 and medalsas 7 teachers regularly bringtheir classes. students alsoconsultthem.HighSchoolclassics anthropology, museumstudies,andfilmtheatre of theuniversityteachingcollections,arthistory, While Classicsstudentsare themostfrequent users spaces indicatedvisitorsintentonseriouswork. merit. Thewhiteboard andlargetablesinthese iconography, ortheartefacts'historicalandartistic themes suchasmanufacturingtechniques, for ateachingmoment. museums orprivatecollectors.Eachobjectisaprop collections withlong-termloansfrom other These universityholdingscombinepermanent maps, timelinesandsundryotherteachingaids. 0Forexample,theannual“ClassicsDay” attheUniversityofCanterbury 10 Naturally thepurposeofteachingcollectionsdiffers between 9 the JamesLogieMemorialCollection.Asabbaticalat (see inset),from 1942to1976. wasresponsible for lecturer attheUniversityof Canterbury, M.K.Steven stories oftheirfounders.Anenergeticclassics Again, behindtheseteachingcollectionsliethe University ofCanterburyLibrary. significant bequestofdetectivenovelslefttothe focus extendedbeyondantiquities,toincludeher Cyprus (Holcroft, 1999).MissSteven'scollecting excavations in the UniversityofMelbourne's the University'sclassicscollection,andsupportof channelled herinheritanceintofurthergrowth of in1956,Steven (Holcroft, 1999).Widowed for anannualpurchase grant forGreek pottery sponsor anapplicationtotheUniversityCouncil passion fortheclassicsreportedly inspired Logieto Canterbury's registrar, JamesLogie.Steven's In 1950StevenmarriedtheUniversityof (1912 -1999) Teacher andcollector:M.K.Steven brings 400-600students intotheDepartment. the objectsare replaced astheirconditiondeterioratesfrom thehandling. comprising replaceable artefactsor replicas. Usedforhands-onlearning, organisations. Somemuseumshaveaseparate teachingcollection (2006). usually from soldierswhohadserved inEgyptandtheMiddleEast” and immediatelyaftertheFirstSecondWorld Wars. Thelatterare seems tohavebeengivenprior1904,withsomeshortburstsduring professional people”(2006).Quéréealsoadds,“mostofourcollection included wealthyrun-holdersandlandowners,military, clericaland over theyears,from assortedprivatedonorsinthecommunity. Donors description, butsometimeswithaprovenance, seemedtobeapattern sort ofsporadicgifting,unfortunatelyusuallywithoutanydetailed 9 Discussions focuson 10 ANTIQUITIES AGAINST A PASIFIKA BACKDROP AT THE CLASSICS MUSEUM, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: CHARLES SCHATZ

Another joint research exercise involved scientists conducting pollen analysis, carbon dating, infrared microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray analysis on remnants of water plants found inside a Cypriot Bichrome Ware jug (circa 800 -700 BC) (Deuling, 2004).13 the University of Sydney showed Miss Steven the Test results revealed that plant “resin dated to the value in students being able to see and touch real 5th or 6th century AD” while the pot “was Greek vases. Returning to Christchurch, Miss Steven stylistically dated to the 8th century BC”. Having the promptly purchased a number of small Greek pots – dates verified, Classics Department staff continue the classics collection at the University of Canterbury research to account for presence of the resin, water was born.11 The Logie Collection currently houses and soil inside the jug (Dueling, 2004). approximately 250 objects and its collection of Treachery? Greek vases, according to the curator Roslynne Bell, is one of the best in the southern hemisphere. More popular collaborations centre on unveiling the Egyptian mummy (see inset); both Te Papa and The Classics Museum at VUW also provided hands- Auckland, Canterbury and Otago Museums have on learning experiences for classics students. Here carried out such exercises. The place of the Egyptian an eclectic array of small pieces was purchased mummy has been widely debated within the principally to support the Departmental teaching museum community and, to some extent, in the programme. “A little bit of everything” is the media. Te Papa's policy excludes public display of informal collection policy. Denise Kalfas, a lecturer in human remains. Other museums' human remains Greek Art, initiated the collection in the late 1940s policies generally only cover koiwi. Canterbury and early 1950s. Originally it mainly comprised Museum sought the advice of their governing Greek vases, much like the Logie Collection at that tangata whenua and permission from the Egyptian time. Department records suggest that Kalfas gifted Ministry of Culture and Antiquities in Cairo to her collection to the Classics Department when she display Tash pen Khonsu to the public (Fyfe, 2006). retired (Dueling, 2006). The coin collection came The mummy exercise also reveals unease in the later; then in the 1970s and 1980s, under Professor museum sector about the ownership of artefacts Dearden, the Classics Museum diversified further. It from the Ancient World. Von Haast purchased Tash continues to collect, and at the time of writing the pen Khonsu in the 1880s from a collector of Museum's first “big” piece, a Black Figure Column Egyptian antiquities in London, yet tests clearly Krater attributed to the Leagros Group, circa 510 reveals a 300-year difference between that of the BC, had just arrived (Dueling, 2006). coffin and the linen wrap of the mummy. This Victoria University has instigated various teaching discrepancy suggests a “body swap”, presumably at 14 initiatives that extended beyond the realm of the point of sale in Egypt in the late 19th century. Classical Studies. In 2005, Museum and Heritage Bendix Hallenstein (see inset) (1835 - 1905) obtained the Otago Museum's mummy from a German Studies students at VUW helped with the consular agent in Egypt. The circumstances of early cataloguing and display of the coin collection. acquisitions are often confused. Dr Deuling, curator, would like to extend this collaboration into further projects. The British Museum's right to house the Elgin 21

11 Another staff member, Professor Gordon Peterson (1921 - 1996), from the O'Rourke (1998), The Dominion Museum and the Egypt Exploration Fund, Maths department temporarily loaned his collection of Roman coins to the London, 1909-1938, presentations and documentation in the Museum of Logie Collection. True to academic eccentricity, Peterson supposedly New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. R. O'Rourke (1998) The Egyptian “knew something discreditable or scandalous” about each of the Collection 1869-1998, accession and associated documentation in the Emperors portrayed on the coins. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. (http://www.rsnz.org/directory/yearbooks/ybook97/obitPetersen.html). When he died, Petersen left the coins to Cardiff University, so in 1997 the 13 The VUW Institute of Geophysics conducted the pollen tests. The carbon

curator had to deaccession them and send them to Wales. dating was undertaken by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences museums aotearoa – 12 For further information see: R. O'Rourke (1996), The Mummy and coffin Ltd., Rafer Radiocarbon Laboratory (they have also dated items for the of the Lady Merhit-em-Wesekht, a chronological document bank British Museum). The infrared microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray was compiled in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. R. done by an analyst at Agriquality Ltd. (Deuling, 2004; 2006). te ara 22 te ara – museums aotearoa REF. EA1989.13 CANTERBURY MUSEUM, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: PTOLEMAIC PERIODC.150BC EGYPTIAN MUMMY, LATE TASH PENKHONSHU, donate thedisputeditemstoItaly. Greece, While thecasestillruns,Gettyhasoptedto acquired artefacts”(BBCNews,3October2005). stolen antiquitiesandconspiringtodealinillegally for“receivingcharged bytheItaliangovernment courses. More recently, anex-Gettycuratorwas marbles isoftendebatedonMuseumStudies 5TheLogieCollection sitswithintheCollegeofArtsatUniversity 15 R.Fyfe(29March, 2006).Emailcommunication. 14 university (Anson,2006;Entwistle, 1990). Dunedin, includingtheartgallery, museumand were giftedtotheculturalinstitutionsof in 1982asignificantportionoftheircollections Mary, DoraandEsmondwere allcollectors,and Emily, marriedIsidore deBeer. Theirchildren, literary figure, CharlesBrasch.Anotherdaughter, Siegfried Braschandtogethertheyhadason,the Hallenstein's fourdaughters,Agnus,married uncle andfather-in-law Fels.Oneof toWilli Hallenstein's andD.I.CLtd.Hallensteinwasboth well-known NewZealandretail stores: Hallenstein's nameisnowassociatedwithtwo A progressive andwell-likedbusinessman,Bendix Hallenstein (1835-1905). The fatherofafamilycollectors:Bendix their mummies'medicalandsociallifehistories. scans enabledmuseumstaff tofindoutmore about between1998 and2005.Again,thesemore detailed undertook computerisedtomography(CT)scans Canterbury, Otago andAucklandMuseums her death(DominionPost,27March 1998). 300 BC,butoffered noconclusiveevidenceabout alive duringtheGreek occupation ofEgyptcirca was ayoungwoman(aged18)ofmodeststatus, hieroglyphs indicatedthat Mehit-em-Wesekhet more abouthersocialand lifehistory. The state ofherteeth.Herdentaldetailsrevealed Life-size X-rayplatesrevealed hergenderandthe X-Ray ofthemummy, LadyMehit-em-Wesekht. collection's technician/displayartistorganisedan museums. In1961RossO'Rourke,thenEgyptian Te Papahada40-yearheadstartontheother Unveiling themummy 'saving' NZ$1.6million from theirannualbudget.Asaresult, theposition Canterbury. Atthetimeofwriting theCollegewasfacedwithtaskof 12 less staticanddisappointinglyunder-resourced. Classical Studiesstudents,apparently remain more or while representative andprobably adequatefor museums overseas.However, ourantiquitycollections, these repatriation headachesfacedbythelarger antiquity collectionsmaysafeguard ourmuseumsfrom The modestsizeandcalibre ofNewZealand'spublic NewsHour, 28 February, 2006). does itprotect sitesfrom beinglootednow(Online offered forsaleonthelegitimateartmarket;nor of aSwisscollector”forsomeyears,before being collection ofanEnglishgentlemanorthe artefacts ostensiblywere safely “housedinthe cannot address thepastactions whereby ancient ownership ofanyartefactsexcavated.This,however, contemporary archaeologists carefully negotiate before contemplatingacquisition. Similarly, scrupulously investigateanartefact'sprovenance NewsHour, 28 February, 2006).Museums to havebeenunintentionallyacquired (Online term loansofanyillegallyexcavatedartefactsfound faith”, maysmoothnegotiationsforfuture long The Met'sactions,packagedasan“actofgood antiquities thoughttohavebeenexportedillegally. several returned totheItaliangovernment then, inFebruarytheMetropolitan MuseumofArt the world”(BBCNews,9December2005).Since collections actasuniversalmuseumsforthegoodof their countiesoforigin,declaringthat“their proclamation nottohandbackancientartefacts the RijksmuseumandGetty, signeda Prado Museum,theMetropolitan MuseumofArt, prominent museums,includingtheLouvre, the December 2005agroup ofinternationally artefacts believedtohavebeenstolen.Thenin meanwhile, hasrenewed claimstoreturn various include Anson'sprojects ofCypruspotteryandseal produces anessentialreference tool.Pastprojects numbers forartefactsheldinNewZealandcollections particularly fruitful.Collatingdescriptionsandcatalogue Theme-based cataloguingprojects haveproved tobe Past imperfect–future indicative? University, localschoolsandthe broader communityalike. detrimental effect ontheCollectionasateachingresource forthe currently non-existentpurchasing budget,willundoubtedlyhave a of Curatorseemslikelytobedisestablished.This move,combinedwitha 15 stones from Iraq, while a published catalogue of ancient lamps in New Zealand collections is imminent. The Logie Collection has two projects in the pipeline. One is a comprehensive catalogue complete with illustrations, descriptions and scholarly essays. The second involves a treasures-style publication featuring collection highlights. I have already cited the Samian ware corpus.

Requirements for description, especially with photographic images and specialist hand-drawn archaeological illustrations, add to the expense of these endeavours. The time spent drawing the RIM FRAGMENT FROM A SAMIAN WARE BOWL, SHOWING DETAILS INCLUDING A PAIR OF ARMED MEN. THIS ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN KENNEDY DEMONSTRATES THE VALUE OF object and the use of the magnifying glass often ARCHAEOLOGICAL DRAWING. THIS FRAGMENT HAS BEEN DATED TO THE SECOND HALF reveal invaluable insights. Fyfe (Canterbury Museum) OF THE FIRST CENTURY AD, SOUTHERN GAUL (MODERN FRANCE). OTAGO MUSEUM REFERENCE D28-98. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: JOHN KENNEDY AND OTAGO MUSEUM and Anson (Otago Museum) both harbour potential cataloguing projects for ambitious Masters or collections were comfortably off, albeit modestly so. Doctoral students. These teaching collections had a specific purpose, their scope was focussed but comprehensive and the The antiquities collections that I consulted were spaces were cosy and intimate. The Otago Museum strongly influenced by their collectors' histories – is included in this assessment, explicitly presenting testament to their vision and purpose. The their antiquities as a “scholar's gallery”. Canterbury university-based collections function well for Museum displays its ancient coinage discreetly on teaching, with significant potential to continue this one floor, while locating its Egyptian Mummy close role, if sufficiently funded. The metropolitan to such popular exhibits as dinosaur fossils and museums visited have small but representative Discovery. In contrast, Te Papa rarely exhibits its holdings, consistent with their founders' intentions classical antiquities, and the mummy is out of sight. and/or collecting policy. I sensed that Otago (Auckland Museum was not included in this project). Museum was actively acquiring antiquities, while Te Papa and Canterbury Museum assigned lower These collections came to life for me through priority to their Classical collections. To be fair, the passionate individuals. My hopes lie in the fact that Canterbury Museum has loaned several objects to those who manage these antiquity collections were the Logie Collection, thus supporting an excellent more than willing for further collaborations to occur.17 teaching collection which neither could achieve Joint ventures are not unusual. Back in the 1950s alone.16 In Wellington, the Classics Museum appears archaeologist Robert Braidwood (another model for able to satisfy its target audiences, without needing that Indiana Jones character) worked closely with Te Papa to complement it. biologists and geologists – on the first archaeological project to win a grant from the U.S. National Science Realism reigns Foundation.18 Today's museums can certainly model Yet what am I comparing these collections to? Our their practice on researchers such as Braidwood, museums will never house antiquity collections strengthening research projects by capitalising on worth millions of dollars – it simply won't happen. cross-disciplinary knowledge, skills and the resulting There is no tradition of large acquisition budgets, potential to engage with new audiences. 23 little tax incentives for donations, and no wealthy Joanna Cobley blogs at the museumdetective.com donors (unlike most large international museums).

Overseas visitors seek out the history and culture of 16 Fyfe, R. (29 March, 2006). Email communication. Aotearoa New Zealand, through collections firmly 17 The Otago Museum and the University of Otago have a Memorandum rooted in our place in the Pacific. I am left asking of Understanding which assigns honorary lectureship roles to some museum staff, while university staff serve as honorary curators at the myself what would be the best way to assess the Museum (Anson, 2006). A similar arrangement operates between the museums aotearoa – value of these collections? If enjoyment was a Canterbury Museum and the University of Canterbury (Fyfe, 2006). 18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Braidwood currency, then I believe that the university-based te ara 24 te ara – museums aotearoa 1909-1973” QUIGLEY, S.(7July2005). “Brasch,CharlesOrwell– QUÉRÉE, J.(29March,2006). Email communication. http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ 1905”. PARRY, G.(7July2005).“Hallenstein,Bendix1835- Search CentreFactSheet. OTAGO MUSEUM.(notdated).“TheMummy”, june06/art_2-28.html http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan- investigate stolenart”. 2006).“Museums (28February ONLINENEWSHOUR Zealand Biography Samuel, 1895-1990”. (7July2005).“deBeer, Esmond NOTMAN, R. University ofCanterbury. Marion KerrSteven”. HOLCROFT, A.(2September1999).“Obituary: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ Dictionary ofNewZealandBiography. (7July2005).“Waite, Fred1885-1952”. GREEN, D. FYFE, R.(29March,2006).Emailcommunication. communication. 2006).Personal (17February FYFE, R. Gallery. Public ArtGallery. (1990). ENTWISTLE, P. for Wellington's mummy”. Wellington. Dominion Post(27March1998).“Noscanplanned (23March2006).Emailcommunication. DEULING, J. University ofWellington. information label,ClassicsMuseum:Victoria (2004).“BichromeWare Jug”, DEULING, J. the CanterburyMuseum. (1906). CANTERBURY MUSEUM (27March2006).Emailcommunication. BEAMES, H. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2558359.stm artefact claims”. (9December2005).“Museumsthwart BBC NEWS /2/hi/entertainment/4374132.stm stolen artefacts”.news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/- (3October2005).“Greecedemands BBC NEWS (23March2006).Emailcommunication. ANSON, D. http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ Dictionary ofNewZealandBiography. 1858-1946”. (7July2005).“Fels,Willi ANSON, D. Bibliography Dictionary ofNewZealand Biography. Dictionary ofNew Zealand Dunedin: DunedinPublicArt . http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ Chronicle, Treasures oftheDunedin Dictionary ofNew MUSEUM, REF. 1952.59.144 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: CANTERBURY SIR JULIANVONHAASTC.1880 Christchurch. Annual Reportof Vol. 34,No.14, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Belzoni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Chapman_Andrews http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Braidwood On IndianaJonesseehttp://en.wikipedia.org itPetersen.html http://www.rsnz.org/directory/yearbooks/ybook97/ob obituary WOODS, B.A.(1996).“GordonMarshallPederson”, http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966 H. McLintock,originallypublishedin1966. An STRATHERN, C.M.G.” M.(11July2005).“Fels,Willi, Biography. Arts, Canterbury Museum. and JenniferQuérée,SeniorCurator, Decorative Collection,TeManager oftheInternational Papa; Artist, Sydney;RossO'Rourke, Collection of Canterbury;JohnKennedy, Archaeological Holcroft, Lecturer, ClassicsDepartment, University Anthropology, CanterburyMuseum;Alison Wellington; RogerFyfe,SeniorCuratorof Universityof Classics Museum,Victoria Canterbury; JudyDeuling,Lecturer andCurator, James LogieMemorialCollection,Universityof Sydney; RoslynneBell,Lecturer andCurator, production, NicholsonMuseum,Universityof production andRomanfineware ceramic Museum; HughBeames,Specialistinlamp Dimitri Anson,CuratorofHumanities,Otago Acknowledgements: Encyclopaedia ofNewZealand, http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ edited byA. All were prepared bytheprominent Londonfirmof Four mammalgroups were obtained over fouryears. was alsoasmallerbequestfor themammalgroups. Gallery were majorbeneficiariesinhiswill,butthere and theAucklandMuseumLibrary andAucklandArt in 1882.Hismaininterests were literaryandartistic, boardon theMuseum'sgoverning andwasPresident solicitor andlocalpolitician(Powell1967).Heserved Augustus MacKechnie(1823-1901)wasanAuckland necessary show-cases"(Cheeseman1917).Edmund "procuring groups ofthelargermammalsand E.A. MacKechnie,whichincluded£500for In 1902theMuseumreceived abequestfrom Mr Welcome bequest Institute andMuseum,AnnualReport means ofrecreation tothegeneralpublic"( appearance oftheMuseum,andaddtoitsvalueasa which "more thanany otherwouldenhancethe Main Hallwithgroups oflargemammals,additions history. Aplanwasdevisedtofillthecentre ofthe allowed theMainHalltobedevotedentirely tonatural to theEthnologicalHallwascompletedin1905.This opened, aStatueHallfollowedin1897,andanannex needed (Wolfe 2001).In1892 anEthnologicalHallwas Hall wascrowded withexhibits, andextensionswere building inPrincesStreet, butitwassmall,theMain In 1876AucklandMuseumhadmovedtoanew animals astoshowourownunusualnativefauna. Auckland Museumwasjustaskeentoexhibitforeign wonders oftheAnimalKingdom.Forthisreason, give enquiringAucklandersanimpression ofthe home. ThatlefttheMuseumandPublicLibraryto coloured booksaboutexotic animalsintheaverage given theexpense,there would havebeenfew A centuryagothere wasnozooinAuckland,and BRIAN GILLoutlinesthehistoryofthisEdwardianshow-piece. display atAucklandMuseum.CuratorofLandVertebrates from theheydayofBritishtaxidermy,hassurvived100years The muskoxandpolarbearhabitatgroup,aspectacularpiece Auckland Museum of the“ArcticGroup”at Arctic anniversary:Centenary 1899-1900). Auckland Ursus maritimus Gerrards proposed theArctic Group –apolarbear mammals butthiswastempered byavailability. The Museumhadpreferences forparticularexotic Special request followed in1905. group –maleandfemale tigers andaleopard – framed bywood,were locally built.Thesecond small. The“show-cases”,withglassonfoursides because theentrancedoortoMainHallwas sections thatwere nottoexceed 4feet(1.2m)wide, England in1904.Eachgroup cameknockeddownin was placedintheMainHalluponarrivalfrom comprised lions(male,femaleandfourcubs) MA96/6, Letter-book 4,p.132).Thefirstgroup hope forintheColony”(AucklandMuseumLibrary expected “ahigherclassoftaxidermythanwecould Articulators”, from whom theMuseum'sCurator Edward Gerrard &Sons,“Taxidermists & There were 61,000Museumvisitorsin 1905-06. visitors totheMuseum" ( for alargeproportion oftheincreased numberof considerable attention,andare nodoubtresponsible springbok andimpala.Themammal groups "attracted herbivorous mammalscomprisingzebra,waterbuck, The finalgroup camein1907–fourSouthAfrican to NewZealandfree-of-charge bytheShawSavillLine. well from allsides”.Itarrivedsafelyin1906,shipped for thecentre ofthehall,andneededto“lookfairly was thelargestandmostexpensive(£100),intended characteristic, andtruetonature.” TheArctic Group always provided thattheattitudes,etc,are correct and Museum wanted“plentyofactioninthegroup, musk ox”(MA96/6,Letter-book 4,pp.589-91).The moschatus – withthebear“comingafteryoung and three muskoxen Annual Report Ovibos 1905-06). ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: B.GILL. POLAR BEAR,2005. THE ARCTICGROUP'S article

te ara – museums aotearoa 25 26 te ara – museums aotearoa B. GILL. MM). THE ARCTICGROUP(360X295 ORIGINAL PRINTEDLABELFOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Museum's 150th anniversaryexhibition.After thatit In 2002theArctic Group wasbrought backforthe floor ofthedisplaytoresemble snow. hidden bythepowdered gypsumthatcoversthe diorama baseisinthree sectionswiththejoins display casewasnotretained after1997.The was thenstored off-site. Theflimsywood-framed Group movedtotheCheesemanHalluntil1997and Wonderful in 1994forredevelopment asthe Cross Gallery(seeGill2000).Thatgallerywasclosed the 1960swhenitwasmovedtoNaturalHistory Natural History(currently theOceansGallery)until Arctic Group wasexhibitedintheHallofGeneral the Museum'snewbuildinginTheDomain. All themammalgroups were movedin1928-29to A newArk museums inEurope, North AmericaandAfrica. to theBritishMuseum(NaturalHistory),and supplied tomuseumsinSydney, andPerth, Melbourne Theirmountedmammalswere“animal furniture”. shields, birds inglasscases,anda startlingdiversityof habitat groups formuseums, totrophy headson public of1906. as pleasingtousnowitmusthavebeenthe dynamism ofthegroup, viewedfrom anyangle,is pose oftheconstituentanimals.Theeleganceand materials. Artistically, there isperfectrealism inthe fading), attestingtotop-levelcraftsmanshipand obvious signsoffailure inthemounts(apartfrom particularly theirfaces.After100yearsthere are no rate, withanexcellentfinishtoeachoftheanimals, The standard oftaxidermyintheArctic Group isfirst The artoftaxidermy Children's DiscoveryCentre, sotheArctic extraordinary rangeof products, from exemplary. They produced an quality, thoughtheirbestworkwas and theirworkwasmore variablein London competitors,RowlandWard, than thoseoftheirmore famous 1967. Theirpriceswere less expensive 2004). Thecompanywaswoundupin Edwardian heydayof taxidermy(Morris and during thelateVictorian & Sonsbeganin1850andflourished The taxidermyfirmofEdward Gerrard ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: AUCKLANDMUSEUM. GRAPHIC ANDLADIES'JOURNAL, MUSEUM, 1906.FROM ARCTIC GROUPUPONUNPACKING AT AUCKLAND THE NEWZEALAND Weird and 19 MAY 1906. Auckland Museum Auckland MuseumatPrincesStreet. R.2001.MrCheeseman'slegacy:The WOLFE, Auckland, AucklandMuseum. History oftheAucklandInstituteandMuseum. POWELL, A.W.B. (ed.)1967. Publishing. Taxidermy Memoir. Ascot,Berkshire,MPM MORRIS, P.A. 2004. 1996. collection atAucklandMuseum,NewZealand,1852- ofthelandvertebrates 2000.History GILL, B.J. Aims. AJubileeSketch. Auckland InstituteandMuseumitsFuture 1917. CHEESEMAN, T.F. References Museum. Brian GillisCuratorofLandVertebrates atAuckland wide viewofnaturalhistory. the timewhenNewZealandmuseumshadaworld- to theheydayofBritishtaxidermy, andareminder of tribute toMrMacKechnie'sgenerosity, atestament bases. SotheArctic Group soldiersproudly on–a as ahabitatgroup ontheir originalinterconnecting oxen survive,inexcellentconditionandstilltogether decorative bases.Happily, thepolarbearandmusk present, damagedandremoved from theiroriginal the fourthgroup, onlythezebraandwaterbuckare their fateintheLandVertebrates Collectionfiles.Of groups, notracesremain, norevenanyrecords of Of thebigcatsinfirstandsecondmammal exhibited continuouslysince1906. for fiveyears,itseemstheArctic Group hasbeen the 1929building,andrecent storageoff-site Weird andWonderful was installedbehindPerspexintherefurbished on icysurfaces. which insulates against thecoldandprovides agrip assist swimming.Thesolesofthe feetare hairy, animals. Theirfront pawsare largeandoar-like to Polar bearsare predators ofmuskoxenandother inner coatoffine,softhairthat keeps outthecold. guard hairsshedrainandsnowprotect an The largestmalesreach 400kg.Thecoarseouter often inacircle orsemi-circle withthecalvesinside. 10-20, andattimesofdangertheybunchtogether, grasses, sedgesandherbage.Theyliveingroups of Musk oxenroam theArctic tundrawhere theyeat Records oftheAucklandMuseum Edward Gerrard&Sons: 38: 1-32. gallery. Besidesthemoveto The FirstFiftyYears ofthe Auckland, Wilson &Horton. Auckland, Wilson The Centennial Records ofthe 36: 59-93. A changed significantly overthelasttenyears. of theTairawhiti. Nowa Charitable Trust, ithas offering diversemuseumprogrammes forthepeople gallery, currently employingtenfulltimestaff and over 50years.Itisacombined museumandart Museum andArtsCentre,Gisborne has existedfor The Tairawhiti Museum,formerlyknownasthe Background been forged”. a strong relationship withtheTairawhiti Museum a newgenerationoftohungahasemerged,so of excellentartists,traditionalandcontemporary. As up untilthe1900s….Uawahasproduced anumber experts inthisarea. Thewhare wanangaflourished presided overand,attendedby, anumberof 1550), andwasfamousforitsartscurriculum, Rawheoro wasestablished byHingangaroa (circa seaboard oftheNorth IslandcalledTe Rawheoro. Te ontheeastern wananga, orhouseoflearning is hometooneofthemostprestigious whare closely involved,commented,“UawaorTolaga Bay Walker,Victor a memberofTe AitangaaHauiti encountered are alsoaddressed. experience hasmostlybeenpositive,thechallenges problems inherent inanyrelationship. Whilethe without givingdueregard tothecomplexitiesand that issimply“progressive”, movinginonedirection, while recognizing the riskinpresenting something This articledocumentsthedevelopingrelationship, which influenceditsdevelopment. museum practice,andpersonalrelationships, allof arrangements,strategicissues, including governance that canbeviewedfrom many perspectives constructive relationship with Te AitangaaHauiti The Tairawhiti Museumenjoysahard-won butvery Introduction Mäori andmuseumsthroughanEastCoastcasestudy discussesthestrengtheningrelationshipbetween MIKE SPEDDING the TairawhitiMuseum Te AitangaaHauitiand Museum andending theassociation.Eventually, contemplated removing theirmaterialfrom the point membersofC.Company seriously the process andintellectualproperty rights.Atone complex andincludedaccessto material,control of parties beganworkingtogether. Theissues were hosting anexhibition.Difficulties surfacedasboth approached tosupportthisproject, perhapsby associated withtheCompany. TheMuseumwas documenting, recording andcollectingmaterial During the1990samajorresearch project began during thewar. Apanui, andNgaiTai iwi.Over1000men served Te AitangaaHauiti,NgatiPorou, Te Whanau a Tamanuhiri, Rongowhakaata,Te AitangaaMahaki, representingMuriwai southofGisborne, Ngai Coast region from Torere intheBayofPlentyto companies. C.Companyrecruited from theEast the SecondWorld War andcomprisedfive Mäori Battalion.The28thBattalionservedin the peopleconnectedwithC.Companyof28th An associationdevelopedbetweentheMuseumand C. Company Aitanga aHauitiwere able toprosper. from whichrelationships suchasthatwithTe Developments inthe1990sprovided aplatform Mäori focus. offering educationprogrammes withaparticular Waihanga) beganworkingwiththeMuseum, 1970s someemergingMäoriartists(NgaPuna some localMäorifamiliesandtheMuseum.In the beginningofanenduringconnectionbetween museum committeeestablishedin1954signalled Museum arrivedviaCanterburyMuseum.AMäori collection ofMäoriartifactsdepositedatthe the Tairawhiti datebacktotheearly1950s.Thefirst The Museum'sstrong relationships withtheiwiof article

te ara – museums aotearoa 27 small range of local art and heritage groups. In the mid 1990s the Society's constitution was reviewed. Following numerous meetings (some very large) to consider different models, the Museum became, by unanimous agreement, a Charitable Trust, with a Board of Trustees with equal representation from Mäori and Pakeha. This demonstration of partnership had the strong support of Mäori, especially those connected with C.Company. It was partly a response to mounting pressure for Mäori to be more fully involved in the Museum. One local kaumatua stated forcefully that Mäori had had enough of being used simply in an advisory capacity in such organisations. The message was clear: the best way to effectively engage Mäori was to have their full participation at the decision making end of the organisation. Another key figure added that, unless their views were taken seriously, Mäori might remove collections and develop some alternative TAIRAWHITI MUSEUM DIRECTOR MICHAEL SPEDDING RETURNING THE MERE POUNAMU TO PUKETAWAI MARAE. (L. TO R.) BOYDIE KIRIKIRI, TEMPLE ISAACS, MICHAEL museum-like facilities. After further meetings, the SPEDDING, JOE PIHEMA, WIREMU KEREKERE. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: TAIRAWHITI MUSEUM Museum adopted a governance model guaranteeing AND ART GALLERY – TE WHARE TAONGA O TE TAIRAWHITI. representation from the five iwi of the Tairawhiti: however, the relationship evolved into one which Ngai Tamanuhiri, Rongowhakata, Te Aitanga a remains valued by both parties.1 The Museum and Mahaki, Te Aitanga a Hauiti, and Ngati Porou. C.Company have since formalised their partnership, Te Aitanga a Hauiti and the Tairawhiti Museum collaborating on various projects: mounting Against this background the Museum began to exhibitions, delivering presentations at national develop a relationship with the people of Te Aitanga events, co-hosting dignitaries at the Museum, and a Hauiti. developing and delivering education programmes. a) Repatriation The benefits to the Museum cannot be underestimated. One measure of success is the In early 1999 members of the iwi enquired about a thousands of first-time visitors connected to mere pounamu thought to have been deposited in C.Company. These interactions have helped to shift the Museum in the 1970s. A schoolteacher at Karaka attitudes and perceptions on both sides, generating Bay (north of Tolaga Bay) found the mere in an urupa a new “constituency” of the community that exposed by the sea. The Museum established that recognises that the Museum has some relevance for they held the mere, and Kourateuwhi Ahuwhenua them. Consequently the Museum's practices, Trust, a Trust associated with the people of policies and strategic direction have been influenced. Puketawai marae, subsequently asked the Museum to consider returning it. The Museum agreed to its Changes in the Museum's governance structure 28 return and established that the repatriation could represent the most striking example.2 For 50 years proceed once the Trust had registered as a collector the Museum operated as an Incorporated Society, under the provisions of the Antiquities Act. governed by a council of 26 members representing a The mere's return was not straightforward. It raised 1 Soutar, M. and Spedding, M. (2000). Improving Bicultural Relationships – a Case Study: The C.Company 28 Mäori Battalion collection and issues about the relative merits of repatriation. Firstly exhibition at the Gisborne Museum and Arts Centre. Wellington:

museums aotearoa Te Aitanga a Hauiti needed to be confident that the Te Papa National Services. – 2 Butts, D. (2003). Mäori and Museums: The Politics of Indigenous mere was definitely theirs, a point initially Recognition, [PhD Thesis], Palmerston North, Massey University. questioned. Although this was established, some te ara people still wanted the mere to stay at the Museum, and a repatriation policy, much influenced by the which they regarded as a neutral “safe” place, experience of returning the mere pounamu to provided the taonga remained accessible. Others Puketawai marae. Board members appreciated the wanted it returned and then buried. These debates practical side of policy development, which proved a continued right up until the mere was returned, positive experience. illustrating the complexity of repatriation issues for c) Education both the institution and those requesting the return.3 In the late 1990s, contracts negotiated with the Finally in May of 1999 a large delegation associated Ministry of Education (Learning Experiences Outside with the Museum formally returned the mere the Classroom) shaped the Museum's education pounamu at Puketawai. This repatriation generated service. Given the region's size (c. 12000 square several collaborative ventures between Te Aitanga a kilometres), the mission to deliver services to all Hauiti and the Tairawhiti Museum.4 students resident in the Tairawhiti was problematic. b) Governance One solution involved establishing an outreach facility at the rural schools in Tolaga Bay Area Within a month of the Tolaga Bay visit, the Museum School, which was deemed a suitable distance from was formally constituted as a Charitable Trust. The Gisborne. In 2002 The Ministry funded this pilot constitution required that the five iwi representatives project, operating a museum classroom, named on the Board of Trustees included one from Te Ruakaka after a former whare wananga. Aitanga a Hauiti. This was a significant milestone in the relationship between the two parties. These While the year long pilot met the needs of students governance changes clearly signalled that the in the immediate vicinity, this was less satisfactory Museum was serious about wanting to work with for schools further afield – they often chose to travel iwi. The iwi groups could now further their own the extra 45 minutes to Gisborne and visit other aims through participation on the Museum's places while they were in town. The Museum's governing body.5 objective of making its services more accessible was thus only partially achieved. The services offered had Anne McGuire was mandated to represent Te to be more mobile, to really increase access. A truck Aitanga a Hauiti on the Board, a position regarded was therefore purchased, thanks to a local Trust, for as highly important. She commented that she is conversion into a mobile museum. Museum teachers there as a watchdog, expected to report anything of now travel to the remotest schools, frequently interest at hui a iwi. “While my primary role is to basing themselves at marae and offering a range of consider the governance of the Museum, I am wananga-type lessons. particularly interested in ways that the Museum can assist and further the aspirations of my iwi. That d) Exhibiting representation also extends to building relationships The Museum also explored the notion of co- with other museums and representing both my iwi operative exhibition projects. Following the earlier and the Museum at national forums”. achievements with C.Company, a series of iwi A busy time ensued. Museum staff began drafting a exhibition projects began. In 2001 members of Te new set of policy statements, progressively Aitanga a Hauiti approached the Museum to discuss considered by the Board throughout 2000. ideas. In 2002 a landmark exhibition opened, 29 Collection management policies were approved, combining taonga and contemporary work from some of which were of particular interest to the members of the iwi and the Tairawhiti Museum's Museum's Mäori Trustees. These included a koiwi collections. Toi Hauiti was a truly collaborative tangata policy, kaitiakitanga (guardianship) policy project and the opening was a huge success.

3 Anne McGuire, who was and still is the Te Aitanga a Hauiti representative 4 Personal communication with Anne McGuire and Victor Walker. on the museum Trust Board, recently commented that the ultimate aim is 5 Nor was this a straightforward process with some arguing that the museums aotearoa the repatriation of taonga back to their own museum. She went on to – say; “we understand now that repatriation is not always the answer so amount of representation on the Board ought to be a reflection of the we look to other things and ways of connecting with our heritage”. size of the group, in this case iwi. te ara Toi Hauiti's popularity prompted a proposal for the Changes of personnel present related challenges. next major initiative to be based at home, i.e. in The successes outlined depend heavily on the quality Tolaga Bay. Thus Te Pou o Te Kani was conceived as of the relationships and the ability of people from a celebration of the arts and culture of Te Aitanga both organisations to work together. Inevitably a Hauiti. The centrepiece for the proceedings at people come and go, and their replacements may Puketawai marae in December 2003 was the mere have different priorities and interact differently. that had been returned to the same place 3 years Despite both parties to a relationship being earlier. It had come to symbolise both the committed to making it work, difficulties arise. relationship between the Museum and Te Aitanga a Hauiti and the journey that was being experienced Views differ or different criteria and standards by the iwi. may apply, for example concerning the handling and care of artefacts. When the Museum made An outstanding success, Te Pou o Te Kani ran taonga available for Te Pou o Te Kani, it stipulated throughout the summer of 2003-2004 and included both environmental and security requirements for the establishment of a museum, art gallery and the duration of the exhibition. In practice, few of artist-in-residence, numerous workshop and those requirements were initially met. What was wananga activities, a local radio station and various the Museum to do? In this case the parties cultural heritage tours. It provided a focus for the worked together to attain minimum requirements. iwi and diverse opportunities for visitor experiences. However another organisation was less While Museum staff provided collections for display accommodating, causing that relationship to falter. and exhibition expertise, their role was noticeably The institution must consider to what extent it secondary to the iwi initiators'. should impose its standards on heritage that The development of both personal and institutional “belongs” to the people requesting its display relationships is consistently critical in these initiatives. or return. Whose responsibility is it if something Working together toward mutually beneficial goals happens? These are hard issues and will ultimately is the best way to develop a positive relationship. be resolved according to the importance the The experiences discussed directly built trust and parties place on the relationship. genuine friendship between Museum personnel and many members of Te Aitanga a Hauiti. Where to from here?

Issues for the Museum These experiences have implications for the Museum's future direction. They clearly demonstrate the value of The Museum, as a public institution unique in its collaboration. The Tairawhiti Museum's strategic region, must be seen to be fair. How best to planning statements explicitly articulate this value. balance the – at times – competing interests of the different iwi and many, many hapu within the In August 2004 the Board of the Museum adopted Tairawhiti6, as well as the Pakeha community? a strategic plan for a major initiative. This involves The honest answer is that there are too many developing significant heritage sites, creating an interested parties and the resource base is too exhibition centre, and facilitating various art and thin to accommodate everyone. Inevitably the heritage projects with iwi and community organisations across the region. The principle of 30 organisation to some extent works with the people it knows it can work with. The partnership active collaboration underpins this plan – not merely with Te Aitanga a Hauiti could become consultation but actually working together toward problematic if comparable ventures are not mutually agreed goals. To this end, the Museum has undertaken with other Mäori groups, and already signed two memoranda of understanding groups within the Pakeha community. with heritage, commercial, local authority, and iwi

museums aotearoa interests. The Te Aitanga a Hauiti and C.Company 6 With C.Company the museum has been fortunate in that all iwi of the – region have an association with that organisation. More often than not experiences already influence the Museum's that will not be the case. strategic thinking and future direction. te ara This approach enables a more efficient use of resources, not just financial but, of equal importance, human resources. People are the most precious commodity for both the Museum and the iwi, with all involved managing their time amongst many other competing priorities.

Information technology is a consideration important for future initiatives. So far the Museum and Te Aitanga a Hauiti have used IT in different ways. Potential collaborations include collection databases, web site design, oral history, and writing and publication projects. The possibilities are endless THE OPENING OF RUAKAKA AT THE TOLAGA BAY AREA SCHOOL BY THE MINISTER OF MÄORI AFFAIRS PAREKURA HOROMIA, and already some are being pursued. KATE WALKER, AND C.COMPANY VETERANS NOEL RAIHANIA AND TAUTINI GLOVER. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: TAIRAWHITI MUSEUM Computer technology offers real AND ART GALLERY – TE WHARE TAONGA O TE TAIRAWHITI. potential for a “virtual museum” incorporating suitably adapted In April 2005 the inaugural Puketawai Cultural museum-like functions. Experience was held. Twenty people enjoyed a guided tour of the Tairawhiti Museum before For over 20 years the development of cultural travelling up to Tolaga Bay to be hosted by the centres has been discussed nation-wide. To date few whanau from Puketawai Marae. This was the most have materialised. The expense of capital recent manifestation of the collaboration between development and on-going operation is a major the Museum and Te Aitanga a Hauiti,. obstacle. Potentially these dilemma can be addressed through joint ventures like those A final word from Anne McGuire, the Te Aitanga a discussed here. Art and heritage initiatives can Hauiti representative on the Museum Trust Board: happen without capital-rich facility development – a “For those with the experience, iwi is a very difficult “nimble” pragmatic approach can be very effective, animal to work with. The staff of the museum particularly in smaller communities. handled the animal admirably…… In the year 2005 the relationship between the Tairawhiti Museum and The Museum is still recognized as having an Te Aitanga a Hauiti is robust and firmly established, important function as kaitiaki or guardian over its and we look forward to developing this relationship collections. What has changed is the involvement of further in the next 5 years”.8 “other” parties with relationships to these collections, and interests in the Museum's activities. Victor Walker Mike Spedding was Director of the Tairawhiti emphasised this connection: “Considering that the Museum from 1997 until 2005. Trained as an Museum has for so long been the kaitiaki or guardian historian, he is currently developing programmes in 31 over many iwi taonga, many being the crafted heritage and museum studies at Tairawhiti artforms and utensils of a bygone era, certainly since Polytechnic in Gisborne. He is on the Board of the the time of Te Rawheoro, it is significant, if not New Zealand Historic Places Trust. somewhat fateful, that such a close relationship be considered, recognized and developed.”7 museums aotearoa

7 Personal communication. – 8 Personal communication. te ara 32 te ara – museums aotearoa museum practice Ashley Remer'sexaminationofinternshipsinthelastissue Greg's accountofhisexperienceasthefirstincumbentisalsopartlyaresponseto developing artcurators.Catherineprovidesthebackgroundonthisinitiativewhile describethenewinternshipestablishedfor andGREGANDERSON CATHERINE LOMAS Mayo forhisgenerosity andforesight inproviding acknowledges the Gallery'sgratitudetoDrJohn training andworkexperiences. ChrisSaines Britain Art Gallerystaff onthe provided anopportunitytoworkalongsideAuckland Gallery onanannualbasis.The 2005internship wasestablished atthe Chris Saines,thisinternship After discussionswithAucklandArtGalleryDirector, causes inthearts,education,lawandhealthsectors. Foundation wasestablishedtobenefitanumberof After herdeathin2002,theMarylynMayo had asimilarcommitmenttoeducationandthearts. Dr JohnMayoandhislatewife,MarylynMayo,have experiencesattheGallery.work andlearning and ArtHistorycourseswhohavesoughtpractical from MuseumsStudies,Conservation, Photographic overtheyearsforstudents of informalinternships this typeofsupportbecauseithashostedanumber The AucklandArtGallerywasaware oftheneedfor inaugural MarylynMayoIntern. recently completedsixmonthsattheGallery asthe careers intheartgallerysector. Greg Andersonhas graduate studentswhoare seekingtofurthertheir opportunities toartgalleryworkersandpost- to provide trainingandprofessional development generous supportofDrJohn MayoofQueensland, in2005,withthe the MarylynMayoInternship The AucklandArtGalleryToi oTamaki established – developingprofessionalism The MarylynMayoInternship Toi oTamaki at theAucklandArtGallery The MarylynMayoInternship exhibition project, whichoffered arangeof Art &the60sfromTate Colin McCahon, DonBinneyandRichard Killeen. that Marylynbegan tocollecttheworkofartists completed herBA/LLBin1960. Itwasatthistime women lawgraduateswhenMarylyn Mason University ofAucklandhadfewer thantwodozen her placeasalegalpioneerin Australasia. The and thevisualarts.Heracademic career establishes (nee Mason)hadalifelonginterest ineducation,law andraisedinNewZealand,Marylyn EveMayo Born Marylyn Mayo will assisthiminapplyingforacuratorialposition. professional developmentexperienceattheGallery the factthatheisatapointinhiscareer where this his strong commitmenttoworkingasacuratorand becauseof was selectedfortheinauguralinternship organiser,As theInternship Icanreport thatGreg department atAucklandWar MemorialMuseum. been acuratorialassistantintheAppliedArts completed independentcuratorialprojects andhad in Auckland;asagallerymanagerLondon; on exhibitionprojects atArtspace; aprivategallery College, UniversityofLondon.Hehadalsoworked Administration andCuratorshipfrom Goldsmiths University ofAucklandandanMAinFineArt Auckland. Greg hasanMA inArtHistoryfrom the wasGregThe firstMarylynMayointern Andersonof future years. professionalism ofNewZealand's artgalleriesin willmakeahugedifferenceour firstintern tothe encouragement ofyoungpeoplethecalibre of becausethesupportand this Internship, Te Ara. Her mother Mavis Mason was an artist, taught for a time by Colin McCahon.

In 1969 Marylyn moved to Australia to teach law at the University of Queensland's Townsville campus, soon to be known as James Cook University. It was here she met and married John Mayo in 1970. Dr Mayo founded economics as a discipline at the same institution. Marylyn's vision to establish a separate Faculty of Law at James Cook University was realised in 1989 when she was the Foundation Head of its newly established Law School until her retirement in 1996.

Marylyn's links with James Cook University remain with the establishment of the Marylyn Mayo Medal and annual Mayo Lecture. Her legacy is also honoured at the Auckland University Law School with the Marylyn Eve Mayo Endowment Scholarship and Marylyn Mayo Rare Book Room. Her special interest in art is recognised at the Auckland Art Gallery by the Marylyn Mayo Internship and the EH McCormick Research Library's annual art history journal, Reading Room.

Catherine Lomas has been the Manager, Collection and Exhibition Services at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o MARYLYN MAYO. COURTESY: AUCKLAND ART GALLERY – TOI O TAMAKI Tämaki since 1976.

The 2006 Marylyn Mayo internship will be advertised and interviewed in May – July to take place at an agreed time between August 2006 – July 2007. There will be a choice of three projects which applicants can select from. The final project and intern will be selected on the basis of the merit of the applicant. These projects will be in the Curatorial, Education and Registration areas. This year there will also the option for an applicant to nominate their own project, in which case the Art Gallery will assess whether it can resource and supervise an independent project. 33

Further information is available from : Marylyn Mayo Internships Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

P O Box 5449, Wellesley Street, Auckland, New Zealand museums aotearoa Email: [email protected] – te ara 34 te ara – museums aotearoa need topreserve theexhibition'snarrative. Iwas considerations must alwaysbetempered with a space inharmonywiththeshow's themes.Aesthetic variety ofartworks,aswell redeveloping the gallery spaceinorder tophysicallyaccommodatea to discusstheintricaciesofredeveloping anexisting theExhibitionsDesigner,meetings. With Iwasable was thefocusofnearlytwoweeksback-to-back department intheGallerycontributestheirexpertise, Obtaining anoverallpicture ofthewayseach A multi-facetedenterprise artist andthisperiod. seeking furthercontextualinformationregarding the and howusefulitwouldbetoanyinterested party considered intermsofitsrelevance totheexhibition each bookaboutanindividualartisthadtobe of study. Bibliographical preparation meantthat was agoodpracticalapplicationofmymanyyears a bibliographyrelating toeach artistintheshow, materials, supplementingartistdetailsandcompiling the show. Readingthrough alloftheexhibition complex anddiversearrayofartworksproposed for art historydegrees, inorder tomakesenseofthe me torevisit inthecourseofmy whatIhadlearned project towhichIwasassigned. Doingthisrequired myself with The firstweekswere taken upwithfamiliarising Background reading allowed accesstoallareas ofitsbusiness. major artinstitutionand,atleastinmycase,ithas opportunity toparticipateintheprocesses ofa providesto date.ThisInternship arare, holistic all ofthepracticalandtheoretical workIhaddone have experienceinalargeinstitutiontoconsolidate and prominent space.Inotherwords, Ineededto experience ononemajorproject inanimportant had notbeenabletoapplyallofmyknowledgeand explored allavenuesofgalleryandcuratorialwork,I independent projects. WhileIhavethoroughly that time,workedonlyforsmallgalleriesoron experience –onenoteasytoobtain.Ihad,upuntil Ifeltthatitwouldfillagapinmy Internship When Ifirstheard abouttheMarylynMayo –theexperience Internship The InauguralMarylynMayo Art &the60sfromTate Britain , the was thecasewith building barely largeenoughtocontainthem,as mammoth taskofbringingsixty-fivecratesintoa used bytheGallerywhenreceiving artworks.The theregistrars Iwasabletoseethemechanisms With potential future audience. Art Galleryisanimportantwayofreaching agreater than theyhaveeverbeen,sotheirattendanceatthe Moreover, schoolsnoware more ethnicallydiverse and relate tothedifferent worksondisplay. allow thechildren tohelp themselves understand their charges,buthavedevelopedprogrammes that volunteers. Importantly, theyare notspoon-feeding work withtheCuratorofEducation,hisstaff and programmes, soitwasuseful togetknowand I hadlittleexperiencewitharteducation and AtlanticCrossing. development andinstallationoftheArt&60s alongside theconservatorsextendedthroughout the be inoptimumconditionasexhibits.Working need tobetreated andstored inorder forthemto important tounderstandhowobjectsandartworks type ofshowyoufindyourselfinvolvedwith,itis Auckland ArtGallery'scollection.Regardless ofthe condition reports onworksloanfrom the Art andHistoryhelpherasshedidanumberof accompany SarahHillarytotheWaikato Museumof their roles. Infact,Iwasfortunateenoughto The Gallery'sconservatorswere happytodiscuss look oftheshow. giving thecuratoranimpression ofthepotential space, wherein thedesignercan'hang'works, which presents athree-dimensional virtualgallery also introduced tothelatestcomputersoftware, participation in In termsofthe administrative sideofmy Copy rites institutions, tothesatisfaction ofallparties. individuals andtheGallery, aswellbetween agreements are arranged andtailored between interested toseehowvarioustypesofloan exhibited inmyshow lender, anartworkcameintothecollectiontobe later onwhen,afternegotiationswithanoverseas Furthermore, Iwasabletoparticipateintheprocess their contentswasamajorlogisticalfeat. Art &the60sfrom Tate Britain Art &the60s Atlantic Crossing , andaccountingfor . Iwasalso , Stephens, curator oftheoriginalTate exhibition. me byothercurators intheGallery, aswellChris and thatthislevelofconversation wasextendedto critical discussionsaboutthecontent oftheshow Impressive toowasthefactthatIinvolvedin asked youropiniononmatters ofimportance. confidence tobetreated asacolleagueandtobe an exhibitionofthissize.Itdefinitelyboostsyour understanding ofexactlywhatittakestoembarkon to and participateinmanystrategymeetingsrelating through hergoodoffices thatIwasabletoattend immense workload,hasproven inspirational.Itwas ontopofanalreadysupervise myInternship, Mary Kisler, thecuratorwhowasgiventaskto side oftheworld. would otherwisebedifficult tomanagefrom this foreign contactstohelpfacilitate approaches that is more, italsogavemethe chancetousemyown were released andbegantoappearinpublic.What was madeallthemore worthwhile whentheimages considerable effort thatwent intothisundertaking advertising andcommunicationsteamare met.The paperwork toensure that the needsofGallery's this process, aswellbalancing andprioritisingthe understand theneedtoprotect theartists'rightsin as apartoftheirdailyroutine. Moreover, Ifully gained anenormousrespect forthosewhodothis was eventuallyabletomastertheprocess. Ialso misunderstandings atoppositesidesoftheglobe),I bureaucratically (endlessforms and have been,andhoweverfraughtitwaslegally galleries) thisprocess might calls toTate &otherUK However difficult (midnight order tousethemagain. (representing estates)in and privategalleries copyright bodies,individuals to reapply tovarious gallery takingtheshowhad purposes, eachsubsequent used foradvertising works intheshow, tobe the useoftenimages Tate hadinitiallysanctioned world ofcopyright.While I discovered thetortuous Art &the60s and gainthebroadest contemporary New Zealand and International art. contemporary NewZealandandInternational working asacurator, withanemphasison currently livesinAucklandandhopestocontinue Greg Anderson,theInauguralMarylynMayoIntern welcoming environment. set onthebestpossiblecourseinaprofessional and willbe that thosewhofollowmeinthisInternship involved inpursuingacareer inthearts,willensure and hisunderstandingoftheattendantdifficulties Dr Mayo'sphilanthropy in thenameofhislatewife relationships. building lastingprofessional andcollegial colleagues there andreinforced myfirmbeliefin all levelsoftheGalleryhascementedmytieswith future career moves.Beingabletohavedealingsat experience inconversationaladviceregarding any Chris Sainesandhavethebenefitofhisextensive definitely agreat opportunity toattenddinnerswith was alsoafforded aviewfrom thetopdown.Itwas Apart from thehands-onwork Iparticipatedin, Big picture ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: GALLERY AUCKLANDART –TOIOTAMAKI CURATED DURINGHISINTERNSHIPAT AUCKLANDART GALLERY. GREG ANDERSONINATLANTIC CROSSING,THEEXHIBITIONWHICHHE

te ara – museums aotearoa 35 museum practice

The Protected Objects Amendment Bill

EDWARD SIDDLE provides a progress report on proposed legislation, which aligns New Zealand's cultural heritage legislation with key international conventions

The Protected Objects Amendment Bill was to participate in these Conventions, which are not introduced into Parliament in February 2005. The currently in the Antiquities Act. Bill substantially amends the Antiquities Act 1975, Consultative process which provides for protection of New Zealand's most important movable cultural heritage. The Motunui Pataka Panels, and the ‘Ortiz’ case While the Bill will change the name of the Act to The Motunui Pataka panels have been described as the Protected Objects Act 1975, the amendments representing “the single most exciting unit of the continue the policy of targeting a limited number of now-extinct Taranaki carving style” and “a true objects, meaning that the changes will not affect masterpiece of Mäori art”. the majority of collectors and traders. The Bill seeks to preserve the delicate balance between the The panels had been dug-up from a swamp in national interest and private property rights that Taranaki, sold to a dealer, exported from New was established in the Antiquities Act 1975. The Zealand in breach of the predecessor legislation to amendments are primarily about improving the the Antiquities Act 1975, and purchased by Mr. operation of the Act, by improving the clarity of Ortiz. Some time later they were put up for definitions around protected objects generally. auction at Sotheby's in London, at which point the Crown issued proceedings in the English Courts in Why does the Antiquities Act need updating? an attempt to recover the panels. The claim to The Bill seeks to address a number of shortcomings recover failed in the House of Lords, on the in the current statute. Firstly, the definitions and ground that the then applicable legislation did not criteria applying to the export of heritage objects are automatically vest title to illegally exported ambiguous. Decision-making processes are not clear artefacts in the Crown. In a previous ruling, the and inconsistent decisions may arise. Secondly, English Court of Appeal also considered that the provision for establishing the ownership of newly- claim should fail on the ground that it would found Mäori artifacts have not been utilised with the involve the enforcement of a foreign penal or frequency originally intended. Thirdly, low penalties public law. provide few sanctions for non-compliance with the It is understood that the Motunui pataka panels Act, particularly with respect to the wilful damage of remain in the ownership of the purchaser. objects subject to export applications.

The other key problem with the current Act is that 36 The Bill is the culmination of a long process of important objects – such as the 'Ortiz' or Motunui review of the Act that began in the late 1980s. This pataka panels (Day, 2001, p. 38-39) – have been review resulted in a discussion paper about illegally exported overseas and cannot be recovered. proposed amendments to the Act which, in 2004, One solution, which will make it more likely that was widely distributed among heritage experts, such objects can be returned to New Zealand, is for collectors, dealers and the general public. Following

museums aotearoa New Zealand to become party to the 1970 UNESCO this discussion paper, the Ministry for Culture and – and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions regarding illegal Heritage further developed the policy proposals into export or theft of cultural heritage objects. The Bill the Bill which was introduced to the House. te ara introduces the required provisions for New Zealand and Heritageadviceonexportdecisions. give theChiefExecutiveofMinistryforCulture heritage. Formallyengagedexpertexaminerswill substantially diminishNewZealand'scultural significance thattheirpermanentexportwould Export permissionwillberefused forobjectsofsuch spiritual, technological,ortraditionalreasons. artistic, cultural,historical,literary, scientific,social, Zealand foraesthetic,archaeological, architectural, extent towhichanobjectissignificantNew the categoriesisthenassessedaccording tothe regulation (seebox).Thesignificance ofobjectsin precisely thetypesof objectssubjecttoexport term “antiquities”).Thesecategoriesdescribe New ZealandObjects”(thisphrasereplaces the creates aschemaofninecategories“Protected controlling theexportofheritageobjects,Bill To address theproblems withthesystemfor Key differences take placesometimein2006. of thelegislativeprocess, whichare expected to committee. TheBillisnowawaitingthefinalparts public submissionsandexaminationbyaselect Parliamentary stages,includingconsiderationof Last year, theBillproceeded through itsinitial Social historyobjects 9 Science,technology, industry, economy, and 8 Numismaticandphilatelicobjects 7 NewZealandarchaeological objects 6 Naturalscienceobjects 5 Ngätaongatäturu 4 Documentaryheritageobjects 3 Artobjectsincludingfine,decorative,and 2 Archaeological, ethnographic,andhistorical 1 Amendment Billforfulldescriptions See ScheduleFouroftheProtected Objects Categories ofprotected NewZealandobjects transport objects popular art to NewZealand objects ofnon-NewZealandorigin,relating recommendations theymake,provided thatadvice to beheldpersonally liableforadviceor of protected NewZealandobjectswillnotbeable Parliament amendtheBillsothat expertexaminers Finally, theSelectCommitteerecommended that refused permissionforexport. that are subjecttoexportapplications,orhavebeen criminal offence relating towilfuldamageofobjects provision isalsointroduced, whichcreates anew $20,000. Theprevious finewas$1,000.Anew fine ofupto$10,000,andabodycorporate taonga täturuwillmakeanindividualliabletoa to adhere toprovisions intheActondisposalof non-compliance withtheAct.Forexample,failure The Billalsosubstantiallyincreases penaltiesfor More realistic sanctions where there are noownershipclaims. example, tomuseums)willcontinuebemade Court forresolution. Grants ofcustody(for Executive tofacilitatetheclaimsMäoriLand cannot beresolved, theBill requires theChief resolved. Where there are competingclaimsthat Mäori LandCourtwhere correct ownershipis confirmation ofownershipbytheRegistrar if possible,resolve competing claims,andseek care oftheobjectduring process, receive and, Culture andHeritagetonotify thefind,provide for requires theChiefExecutiveofMinistryfor of foundMäoriculturalobjectsisestablished.This administrative process for ensuring thatownership ownership. granted infrequently, withiwigenerallyhavingbeen determined. However, thishasonlyhappened of theActthatownershipthoseobjectsis When suchobjectsare found,itistheintention objects from before 1902. definition expandstheoldone,whichonlycovered Mäori), andare atleast50yearsold.Thisnew Zealand byMäori(orbrought intoNewZealandby have been)manufactured ormodifiedinNew Mäori culture orsocietyandwere (orappear to Act asartifacts is thatofngätaongatäturu, One keychangerepresented bytheninecategories Ngä taongatäturu custody The Billprovides amore streamlined . Theseare objectsthatrelate to of foundartifacts,ratherthan known inthecurrent

te ara – museums aotearoa 37 38 te ara – museums aotearoa article in examiner intheirrole asanemployee.Afuture protection foranymuseum staff actingasanexpert was giveningoodfaith.Thisprovides animportant MINISTRY FORCULTURE ANDHERITAGE. DECIDED FORTHEFISHHOOKSTOBEHOUSEDAT THEMUSEUMINSPECIALISEDCONDITIONSUNTILFURTHER NOTICE. THE MUSEUMCONCERNED,DEPARTMENT OFCONSERVATION ANDLOCALIWIALLHADANINTERESTINTHEARTIFACTS ANDTOGETHERITWAS PROTECTED OBJECTS:AHIGHLY UNUSUALANDFRAGILEFINDAT TARAKOHE OFMATAU (FISHHOOKS),SOMESTILLWITHFLAXFIBRESATTACHED. A,KLI (2001) DAY, KELVIN Reference has haditssecongreading Editors Note:Atthetimeofgoingtopress, theBill Literature. the MinistryofJustice,andhasBA(Hons)inEnglish worked attheNewZealandCustomsServiceand Ministry forCulture andHeritage.Hehaspreviously Edward Siddleisaheritagepolicyadviseratthe relate tomuseums,onceitisenacted. operational aspectsoftheBill,particularlyasthey Taranaki region, Te Ara will provide more detailabout Wellington: ReedBooks. Mäori woodcarvingofthe ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: continued toprovide workshopsthroughout the by NationalServices Te Paerangi, whohavealso opportunities, includingafocussed sessionhosted Aotearoa conference offered excellentlearning staff andvolunteers.Thisyear'sannualMuseums the rangeoftraininganddevelopment optionsfor Significant progress has beenmadeonimproving Training ontrack and archives sectors. and includeconsultationwiththeheritage,libraries and supportofaDistributedNationalCollection, establishment ofanappropriate structure forliaison bring ittofruition.Themeetingwillconsiderthe identify thestepsthatwillneedtobefollowed Distributed NationalCollectionconceptandto prepare more intensively forthedevelopmentofa A meetinghasbeenconvenedinJune2006to Collection direction work onourfuture endeavours. Paerangi, offer astrong platformfrom whichto the prioritiesandstructure ofNationalServicesTe clarification oftheMoU,andrecent review of recent MuseumsAotearoa conference inNapier. The common interest, andwas formallysignedatthe cooperation andcollaborationonmattersof Te Paerangi.Thiscoversareas ofresponsibility, between MuseumsAotearoa andNationalServices A MemorandumofUnderstandinghasbeenagreed Common ground significantly. evolving needs.Anumberhaveprogressed last yearinresponse tochanging circumstances and strategies andtaskshavebeenreprioritised inthe implementation taskstoaddress them.Some and galleries,aswellstrategiesspecific a rangeofissuesandchallengesfacingmuseums unanimous endorsementbythesector. Thissetout Museums SectorinNewZealand Museums Aotearoa launched one yearon The museumsectorstrategy– A Strategyforthe one yearagoto twelve months undertaken byMuseumsAotearoainthepast summariseskeyactivities PHILLIPA TOCKER Aotearoa. Phillipa Tocker isExecutive Director, Museums asked tocontributeit. of thisproject, andallmuseumsgallerieswillbe these in2006.Inputisinvited into thedevelopment initiatives. MuseumsAotearoa willbeworkingon trends ortoprove thepotentialworthofnew comprehensive data,itisdifficult topredict future remuneration andsector-wide statistics.Without further work.Theseprojects includebenchmarking, projects toimprove informationonwhichtobase wide considerationisthedevelopmentofcollective Another area identifiedinthe Counting forsomething currently possible. support servicestothemuseumssectorthatare not be launchedinJune,andwillenableustooffer capacity asaclearing-houseforinformation.Itwill working onanewwebsite,whichwillenhanceour communication tool.MuseumsAotearoa hasbeen exhibitions, aswellbeinganessential opportunities, sharinginformationontouring to collections,nationaldatabases,life-longlearning It hasasignificantrole to play inenhancingaccess several oftheimplementationtasksStrategy. ishighlightedin The importanceoftheInternet Technological advantage museum andgallerystaff training options. the country, and fillsagapinthecontinuumof individuals inourmuseumsandgalleriesaround the culminationofmanyyears'workby already havetoberecognised formally. Thisis acquire appropriate skills,andforthosethey have nomuseum-related tertiaryeducationto This certificateallowsstaff andvolunteerswho earlier thisyear, hasalready signeditsfirsttrainee. Aviation, Travel andTourism Training Organisation Certificate inMuseumPracticelaunchedbythe country basedonregional needs.Thenew Strategy for sector- Museums Aotearoamatters HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL TRUST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: 2006 CONFERENCEINNAPIER. AOTEAROA, ENJOYSTHE DIRECTOR OFMUSEUMS PHILLIPA TOCKER,EXECUTIVE

te ara – museums aotearoa 39 40 te ara – museums aotearoa Museums Aotearoamatters Napier bytheHawkesBayCulturalTrust,April19-21,2006 reflectsonthisyear'sconferencehostedin FIONA HALL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL TRUST REGULAR DOSESOFSUNSHINEANDCOFFEEKEEPDELEGATES ATTENTIVE. organisations, and dowebelievethatthere isonly emotion anda spiritual connectionwithinour most basic,howdoweenable theexpression of acceptance forspiritualitywithin themuseum.Atits ensure suchsafetywithalevelofcomfortand and taongatheimportance oftrainingto creatingconcerned “safe”spacesfor staff, visitors entail. Perhapssomeofthemostusefuldiscussion spirituality andthebenefitschallengesthesecan wide rangeoftopicsandmanifestationsmuseum Elaine'sexpertfacilitation, thegroup coveredWith a live inNewZealandanyway. having intheirprofessional lives–thosethatdonot discussion manymuseumpeoplewouldanticipate 21st centurymuseum”,perhapsnotthekindof discussion” addressing “The role ofspiritualityinthe Paerangi, Elaine'smasterclasswas“aguided conference eventorganised byNationalServicesTe For thoseofusfortunateenoughtoattendthepre- and challengingspeakerElaineHeumannGurianis. What aremarkable, thought-provoking, insightful Spirited start focus ofcommunitylife 2006 –Museumsasacentral Museums AotearoaConference have undertaken. Itissorefreshing to hearabout various museum workersdetailedprojects thatthey and thecommunity. Somefascinatingtalks from the themeofinteractionsbetween museums Many oftheotherconference speakerscontinued Reports from thefrontline cited thatare already onthistrack. changes andseveralexamplesofmuseumswere museums havethegreatest abilitytomakethese concur withherviewthatsmall,more focused consensus aboutherunderlyingconcept.Iwould with theanalogiesshepresented, there wasgeneral whilst noteveryonewasincompleteagreement She setouttobecontroversial andprovocative and, think ofourrelationships inadifferent way. or byaquest,questionneed,sheurgedusto whereinternet visitorsare driven by'flightsoffancy' services suchaslibraries,shoppingmallsandthe comparisons withothercommunityorganisationsor relationships withourcommunities.By using where thepowerliesinour organisationsandinour “The EssentialMuseum”,challengedustoconsider Elaine's keynoteaddress the followingday, entitled undefined Elusive essence–acknowledgedbutstill take awiderandmore diversified view. community involvementare extraordinary whenwe growth forus,ourstaff, ourinstitutionsand it arises,yettheopportunitiesforunderstandingand days where oneeasysolution wouldfiteachissueas will behappytofostertheseconcepts.Goneare the importantly, to understandthatinitiallynoteveryone and encouragediversityexpression and,most Certainly, itis achallengeformanagerstoenable one centralstorythatistobetold? invaluable for all. It was also pleasing to see such a WELCOME TO THE large attendance both from the smaller museums CONFERENCE! STAFF OF THE HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL NGAHIWI TOMOANA, CHAIR OF NGATI KAHUNGUNGU, SHOOTS FOR and from volunteers and others associated with TRUST, HOSTS OF THE 2006 THE STARS, SHARING FUTURE PLANS FOR A CULTURAL CENTRE. CONFERENCE, ENSURE THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL TRUST museums – either in a community or governance ORGANISATION RUNS role. A request for the next conference though – SMOOTHLY. not only the parts of the projects that were could the organisers please produce a list of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL TRUST successful, but also the failures, the obstacles and, attendees, as this encourages networking? invariably, the thought patterns and operating procedures that needed to change. The introduction of a trade show was an excellent idea as it allowed people to discuss and see new These accounts provoke us into thinking about the technology, even if we are not yet able to afford it, future projects we may have in mind and how to and make contact with new suppliers. Certainly, deal with issues likely to be encountered. The most of the people I spoke with found it an examples of the various projects that had invaluable experience and something they would like experienced difficulties were as insightful as those to see continue. that did not. I was particularly struck by both the integrity and courage of Tairawhiti Museum in sharing their experiences.

There were also presentations from people involved RELATIONSHIP ISSUES: with government projects relating to culture, MIKE SPEDDING AND MONTY tourism and museums. Tourism New Zealand's work SOUTAR'S DOUBLE ACT WAS REFRESHINGLY HONEST. was very useful – particularly for those of us who do ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: HAWKE'S BAY CULTURAL TRUST need to keep explaining in quantifiable terms what we do to attract visitors and why. I will confess to being rather confused about the Cultural Portal, not because I did not understand the concept but because I simply would not want to visit it, initially based on the presentation. Fitting finale

A new bible? Returning to the conference theme of Museums as a central focus of community life, Te Taru White and Coming from one of the museums audited as part others, after his presentation, sang the waiata Hutia of the Management of Heritage Collection in Local te rito o te harakeke. What could be more Museums and Art Galleries study by the Office of appropriate, as Elaine Heumann Gurian noted, than the Auditor General, I was delighted that the the last two lines: conference organisers asked Bill Gebbie to report He aha te mea nui o te o maku e ki atu, their findings to the wider museum community. He tangata, he tangata, he tangata Whilst Bill did express a desire that we not use the What is the most important thing in this world? report to bludgeon our governing bodies into It is people, it is people, it is people. action, the mere existence of the report is, I have already found, very useful in creating action. It is Fiona Hall has been Manager of the Whakatane from a body respected by local government, and Museum and Gallery for three years. Previously she 41 written in a way that appeals to politicians and was a Curator at Te Papa for seven years, Manager bureaucrats, and thus provides an antidote to the of the New Zealand Geographic Board, Project Curator with the Museum of City and Sea in unfortunate scepticism, which is sometimes Wellington and Curator at the Whanganui Regional expressed about our ability to function in a Museum. She has also worked with several small professional, business-like fashion.

museums and other organisations as a freelance museums aotearoa As a community of museum workers, this openness curator. This was her fourth, and best, Museums – and willingness to share advice and experience is Association conference. te ara International event

'Oceans Apart, Museums Together' – the International Congress of Maritime Museums 2005

CLAIRE FREEMAN reports on the 12th Triennial International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM), held in Auckland, 7-11 November 2005, proudly co- hosted by the New Zealand National Maritime Museum and the Navy Museum.

biological evidence that allows us to trace the remarkable settlement of the Pacific islands by the Austronesian people. This story, of humans reaching the end of the habitable world, was clearly one of the highlights of the Congress.

This theme is also the subject of the forthcoming 'Vaka Moana' exhibition, described by Rodney Wilson. The exhibition, curated by some of the world's leading scholars, is due to open at the Auckland Museum in December 2006 before touring to Asia, Europe & the United States.

This story of the Pacific migration was the first of several sessions that brought a local flavour to the International Congress. Other papers included Te Papa's Seddon Bennington outlining cultural AOTEAROA ONE SAILING PAST THE ICMM DELEGATES ABOARD HMNZS RESOLUTION. BUILT AND OPERATED BY TE WANANGA O AOTEAROA, AOTEAROA ONE IS USED FOR responsibility through the involvement of, and TRAINING IN TRADITIONAL VOYAGING SKILLS. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MARITIME MUSEUMS 2005 consultation with, iwi; and an insight into the “cultural centres” of the Pacific Islands. Here, The Congress opened with a powhiri at the traditional heritage management practice is being Maritime Museum, welcoming more than 70 challenged by the cultural and intellectual renaissance delegates and speakers from 14 countries as diverse in the Pacific. Museums have had to broaden their as the Bahamas, Finland, Argentina, Canada, sense of heritage and are working to reconnect with Portugal, and Jersey. The evening also provided an their communities through local involvement in opportunity for delegates to view the 'Snapshots' developing exhibitions and public programmes. exhibition – highlighting moments from New Keeping afloat 42 Zealand's maritime history – which was jointly curated by the two host museums. Another prevailing theme of the Congress was addressing the challenges that maritime museums Pacific compass are facing – making themselves relevant to a wider Kerry Howe of Massey University made an audience and being effective in telling their story. immediate impact on the Congress with his Such was the message in Paul Thompson's presentation of ‘The Last Great Migration – The museums aotearoa informative paper entitled ‘The reinvention of – Human Discovery of the South Pacific and New Wellington Maritime Museum as the Museum of Zealand’. He spoke of the artefactual, linguistic and Wellington City & Sea’. te ara tackled a project on an even bigger scale. Their rebuilding programme sought to address audience needs. It utilised a combination JOINT VENTURE: REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RNZ NAVY MUSEUM AND THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM ENSURE EVERYTHING IS SHIP- of interpretive BEATING THE RETREAT AT DEVONPORT NAVAL BASE. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: SHAPE WITH CONGRESS ORGANISERS CMSL. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MARITIME MUSEUMS 2005 CLIFF HEYWOOD (DEPUTY DIRECTOR, RNZNM), DEREK WEDEKIND strategies that (NZNMM FRIEND), PAUL WALKER (CMSL), LARRY ROBBINS (CEO emphasise a visual perspective to focus visitor NZNMM), SHELLEY CALLANDER (CMSL).ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MARITIME MUSEUMS 2005 attention on the objects, but still provided contextual information, not only through labels, but also with In the 1990s, the governance of the Wellington optional reference material, audio guides, etc. The Maritime Museum was passed from the Wellington building itself has a diversity of gallery spaces and Harbour Board into the care of the Wellington City design features to allow multiple pathways through Council run Wellington Museums Trust. As the the building, giving the recipient of public funding, the Museum now had public different, and an obligation to make itself accessible to as broad hopefully fresh, an audience as possible. The result was that the experiences on Museum widened its focus; a change of name, to repeat visits. the Museum of Wellington City and Sea, signalled this shift. Although it still retains a nautical feel “Interpreting today, about two thirds of the Museum's exhibitions Adventure – pushing and education programmes encompass non- the boundaries of maritime themes. Overall, the transformation has Museum Practice” been an outstanding success with an increase in was the title of a both admission numbers and visitor satisfaction. fascinating presentation by the A similar story of transformation was told by John Australian Maritime Kearon of the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Museum's Daina ATTENTIVE DELEGATES LISTEN TO THE OPENING SPEECHES IN THE Britain. This was a “traditional” maritime museum, EDMISTON GALLERY OF THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM. Fletcher. She outlined ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MARITIME MUSEUMS 2005 which, in response to falling visitor numbers, the story of Australian recently radically changed direction. It installed a Kay Cottee, the first woman to sail around the temporary exhibitions space that encompasses world unaided. The Museum purchased Cottee's general and more wide-ranging maritime-related boat and over 1000 associated artefacts. So began themes, and is also expanding the use of its historic the challenge for the Museum – how to vessel to serve as a corporate event venue, communicate the danger, drama and emotion of education area, and gallery. Cottee's story whilst still preserving her boat and Making waves related artefacts? To do this, the Museum chose 10 days of Cottee's actual voyage and demonstrated Burt Logan from the USS Constitution Museum in how the boat was used at that time, both by the Boston spoke of a three-year study they are careful placement of artefacts (replicating moments undertaking to research family learning. The study 43 recorded in Cottee's photographs) and through the has measured the effectiveness of simple family Museum guides' narratives. interactives through the use of prototype exhibits and extensive visitor evaluations. The project is into Other currents its first year – it will continue into 2008 with the The conference also included a chance for short outcomes summarised in articles, a website, and a reports from various maritime museums. One museums aotearoa

“do-it-yourself” toolkit for museums. delivered by the South Australian Maritime Museum – The Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, USA, explained the creation of education programmes te ara These included a formal dinner at the Auckland Museum and an evening hosted by the Royal New Zealand Navy that included a 'Beating the Retreat' display by the Navy Band and a Guard of Honour. Delegates were most fortunate to spend the final day of the conference relaxing onboard the Navy's hydrographic survey ship, HMNZS Resolution.

In summary, the ICMM Conference was a most enlightening and interesting event. The variety of papers presented prompted much discussion and provided a great deal of food for thought. New Zealand was honoured to be able to host an international conference of this magnitude, and delegates remarked upon the high standard of the event's organisation, as well as the warmth of the local hospitality.

ALL ABOARD. DELEGATES SET OFF FOR THE RECEPTION AT THE DEVONPORT NAVAL BASE ABOARD THE HISTORIC HARBOUR FERRY GLEN ROSA (BUILT IN 1949). ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MARITIME MUSEUMS 2005

using Centra, a computer software programme. The programme allows the facilitator to give a presentation using live footage that is viewed in real-time by the participants who can interact with the facilitator. The Museum has used the programme to encourage children, schools and community groups to create their own exhibitions and undertake community projects.

Other conference topics ranged from the place of STILL LISTENING. DELEGATES ABOARD HMNZS RESOLUTION HEAR women in maritime museums, to the Saltwater ABOUT THE WORK OF THE NAVY'S HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEY SHIP. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MARITIME MUSEUMS collection of bark paintings at the Australian National 2005 Maritime Museum; and from early leisure boating in Claire Freeman is Collection Manager at the Navy New Zealand to the ubiquitous Captain Cook. Museum, Devonport, on Auckland's North Shore. Nautical networking Her previous employment has included working in 44 The Congress also provided a chance for informal the Registration section at the Auckland Museum networking, involving several excellent social events. and at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, UK.

The International Congress of Maritime Museums is a self-supporting network of maritime museum professionals. Its museum membership numbers well over 100 with a focus on bringing together

museums aotearoa professional counterparts from all over the world for its biennial (previously triennial) conference. It – publishes a thrice-yearly newsletter and hosts a website: www.icmmonline.org te ara and theUnited Kingdom. came from Australia, NewZealand,Canada, India aligned masterclasses andexhibitions.Thespeakers delegates, andwascomplemented bythematically The summititselfwasattended bywellover100 Museums Aotearoa. made availabletoNewZealanddelegatesthrough provided fundingfortenbursaries,whichwere Art Services)andCreative NewZealand(CNZ).CNZ the AustralianHighCommission,IAS(International summit wasmadeeasierthankstotheassistanceof New Zealandinvolvementpriorto,andduring,the geographical isolation. takers andleadersinspiteof,orperhapsdueto, Zealand, anditsmuseumsgalleries,asrisk- influenced bytheAustralianperception ofNew that of and participation.Indeedtheprimarythemeitself– Zealand involvementtodate,intermsofplanning Notably, this summit markedtheheaviestNew Local participation Perceptions ofAudience • NewProtocols: DialoguesAcross Cultures • Perceptions ofRegionalism • Creative Programming andLeadership • themes were: regional galleriesinAustraliaandNew Zealand.The themes, eachexploringaspectsoftheroles of and exchange.Theprogramme addressed fourkey explore philosophies,whilst provoking discussion the summitwastopresent newconceptsand following almosttwoyearsofplanning.Theaim by MuseumsandGalleriesNSW(MGNSW), This third PublicGalleriesSummitwascoordinated wasimpressed. Tasman conference,9-11November,2005.TRACYPUKLOWSKI Wagga Wagga,NewSouthWales,wasthevenueforthisgroundbreakingTrans- 2005 PublicGalleriesSummit Leading fromtheEdge– Leading fromtheEdge – washeavily compelling statements –andchallengeswhen she Faith Liddellmade oneofthesummit'smost experience, thereby empoweringthevisitor. the needtopositionviewer ascentraltotheart – particularlyintermsofexhibition planning,and All reinforced theneed tohaveanunwaveringvision Sydney). (Director oftheMuseumContemporaryArt, Contemporary Art)andElizabethAnnMcGregor Sarah Miller(Director ofPerthInstitute (former Director oftheGovett-Brewster ArtGallery), Director ofDundeeContemporaryArts),Greg Burke explored byspeakerssuchasFaithLiddell(former Leadership intermsofplanningandvisionwas explicit andimplicitforms. predominated; thatofLeadership, anditsmany of thesummit,there was really onlyonethemethat Although thefourmainthemesguidedformat Leitmotiv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: MUSEUMS&GALLERIESNEWSOUTHWALES WITH PANELLISTS AMANDALAWSON, SARAHMILLER,ANNAWALDMANN. GREGORY BURKEDISCUSSESCREATIVE PROGRAMMINGANDLEADERSHIP International event

te ara – museums aotearoa 45 46 te ara – museums aotearoa DIALOGUES ACROSSCULTURES. NGAHIRAKA MASONOFAUCKLANDART GALLERY CONTRIBUTESTOSESSIONENTITLEDNEWPROTOCOLS: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: MUSEUMS&GALLERIESNEWSOUTHWALES programming shouldbedrivenbypassion. In adjust programming todrivevisitation.She believes including free access,andasteadfastrefusal to attributes toanumberofinitiatives andconcepts, under ElizabethAnn'sDirectorship, whichshe visitation totheMCAtrebled inaspaceof4-5years 'blockbuster' exhibitionstoincrease visitation.The 'dumbing down'theartpresented, oron transformation wasthatitrelied innowayupon organisation. Themostinteresting aspectofthis irrelevant institutiontoadynamicandsuccessful MCA around, from itbeingseenasanelitistand perceptionsof howshemanagedtoturn ofthe McGregor, whogaveanaccountonthesecondday These principleswere reinforced byElizabethAnn Scottish art. DCA isnowregarded ashavingreinvigorated overwhelmingly conservativeandworking-classcity, Contemporary Arts(DCA);establishedin1999an paid dividendsforbothLiddellandDundee to bediluted.Certainlythisdeterminedapproach imagined, andnevertoallowyourstrategicdirection they want,butwhatmightneverhave exhorted attendeestogivepeoplenotonlywhat Curator ofArtatTe Papa. Te Awamutu Museum,andmore recently as served asDirector ofAratoiinMastertonand the Waikato MuseumofArtandHistory, she After aperiodasCuratorofArtCollectionswith General ManagerofNationalServicesTe Paerangi. An experiencedartcurator, Tracy Puklowskiisnow creative exchangeandinteraction. that thismightheraldaneweraoftrans-Tasman the nextsummit,plannedfor2008,anditishoped Zealand hasbeenapproached todevelopandhost museums, andhowwedoit.Accordingly, New moreto learn aboutwhatwedoinourgalleriesand overwhelmingly positive.There isahunger, itseems, New Zealandparticipationandattendancewas organisational levels.Thereaction tothelevelof exchange ideasonbothindividualand aspect ofthesummitwasopportunityto Themes andsub-themesaside,themostbeneficial New frontiers passion, andtheirdetermination. theme ofleadershipthrough theirvision, Yet otherspeakerson different topicsreinforced the industries, butalsoforbusinessperse. leadership asaviablemodelnotonlyforthecreative presented thenotionofdistributedorcollective contemplated themeaningofleadership,and Art andDesign,attheUniversityofWollongong) also creative leadership.AmandaLawson(HeadofSchool, reviewed thelatestresearch findingsoneffective in themasterclass runbyProfessor RogerCollins,who A more traditionalexplorationofLeadershipemerged Mastering leadership powerful difference. on demystifyingratherthanexplaining;asubtleyet addition, theMCA'sinterpretive strategiesare based In anearlierissueof Destination Salem Salem A NewEnglandAdventurein Witches, Writers,andWhalers: Testament cityofpeace. Hebrew word Shalom)around 1830 aftertheOld New World. Theyrenamed itSalem(from the settlers were hopingtofindahavenofpeaceinthis nearby CapeAnn,ledbyRoger Conant,these arrival ofEnglishsettlersin1626. Migratingfrom for manycenturiesbytheAlgonkian before the translated as“thefishingplace”hadbeenoccupied Massachusetts in1629.Naumkeag,loosely ours wastheoldest,formallyfoundedin Almost everyStateintheU.S.hasitsSalem,but Washington D.C.andNewYork. other nearbyStates,includingNewHampshire, approximately fiveweeksinSalem,visitingafew to August2005.MyfamilyandIspent and metostudytheSalemcollectionsfrom July Christina tovisitNewZealandinNovember2004 Association ofMuseums.Thisgrantenabled Programme grant organised bytheAmerican Partnerships AmongMuseums(IPAM) successful inbeingawarded anInternational acquisitions datedfrom 1802. We were Marine Society. SomeoftheirearliestMäori by seacaptainsandtradersfrom theEastIndia collection, themajorityofwhichwascollected project tocatalogue theirextensiveMäori raising thepossibilityofcollaborationona Curator ofOceanicArt,ChristinaHellmich, approach in2002 by thePEM'sthenAssociate daughter intow. Theexchangearose from an This timeIhadmyparents andthree yearold Museum (PEM)inSalem,Massachusetts,U.S.A. wasanexchangetothePeabodyEssex journey Nara, Japan.Mymostrecent international Training forYoung LeadersProgramme heldin I describedmyexperienceontheUNESCO Te Ara collections ofMäorimaterialbySalem'sseacaptains. duringamuseumexchangetoinvestigatetheearly CLARKE An historicNewEnglandseaportcastsitsspellonCHANEL (2005, 30(1)), the starsandstripes intoPacificwaters. Trade Salemwere amongthefirstAmericansto fly world.ThecitizensofChina in theearlymodern vessels inoneofthebusiestand bestknownports peak in1807,Salem'sfleetnumbered some200 eighteenth andearlynineteenth centuries.Atits American seatradingportduring thelate other fronts, notleastitsimportanceasthemajor considerable historicalsignificanceonanumberof However, thisoneeventovershadowsSalem's stores andshopssellingotherrelated paraphernalia. evident inthemanywitch-related museums,tarot decent share ofNewEngland'stouristmarket, which itslocalbusinessesfullyexploit,generatinga suspected witchcraft.Thisverysmallincidentisone and onemanwaspressed todeathwithstonesfor of thetownsfolk.Nineteenwomenwere hanged where masshysteriaovertook thegoodjudgement year (between1692-1693)initsverylonghistory Salem isnowmostwidelyrecognised fortheone Good spells,andbad FOUNDED THEMUSEUM. LANDMARK. ITWAS BUILT IN1825BYTHEEASTINDIA MARINESOCIETY, WHICH VIEW OFEASTINDIAMARINEHALLWHICHISDESIGNATED ANATIONAL HISTORIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: CHANELCLARKE Overseas experience

te ara – museums aotearoa 47 INTERIOR VIEW OF THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM'S NEW ATRIUM DESIGNED BY RENOWNED ARCHITECT MOSHE SAFDIE. THE PROJECT, WHICH WAS COMPLETED IN JUNE 2003, RENOVATED EXISTING SPACES AND CREATED 250,000 SQUARE FEET OF NEW FACILITIES. THE ATRIUM PROVIDES AN IMPRESSIVE SPACE THAT UNIFIES AND INTEGRATES THE OLD WITH THE NEW. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: CHANEL CLARKE

reached Australia and New Zealand. Some of the taonga within the Museum were brought back by these vessels, while others were obtained from whalers operating from New Bedford's large whaling fleet which touched in at New Zealand for wood and Purposeful endeavours water. As a result the PEM now has one of the The East India Marine Society had three purposes: country's finest ethnological collections of Oceanic the first was to help the needy families of mariners origin, including approximately 300 Mäori items. engaged in a hazardous enterprise; the second to Many of the objects contained within the Mäori gather a library of information to improve collection are of more than passing interest, due to navigation; and the third was to form a museum of their early known date of accession obtained from objects found on distant shores. Eligibility for the relevant captain's logs and journals. The earliest membership of the Society was restricted to accessions date from 1802, 1803, 1807, 1812 and shipmasters and super-cargoes (owner's 1823. Indeed our time spent studying the PEM representatives) who “shall have actually navigated collections was useful in that, when comparing

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN pieces with examples in New Zealand museums with GABLES (TURNER INGERSOLL HOUSE C.A 1668), WHICH known ages, it became apparent that some stylistic INSPIRED THE BOOK OF THE conventions may have been present much earlier SAME NAME BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. ANIMATED than was previously thought. JUNIOR TOUR GUIDE, HANA- RAWHITI MAIPI-CLARKE, Exploits of the Eliza ENJOYS THE PERIOD GARDEN WITH HER GRANDMOTHER EILEEN CLARKE. The accessions of 1807 came from Captain William ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: CHANEL Richardson who sailed on the brig Eliza of Salem, CLARKE leaving the Isle of France, eventually arriving in Sydney on 20th December, 1805. It has been the Seas near the Cape of Good Hope and Cape presumed that the taonga he collected and then Horn.” Each member bound for sea was given a deposited in the Museum were obtained from the blank journal, to be filled with the log of the Bay of Islands. A logbook of the voyage has survived voyage, descriptions of channels, ports, reefs and but unfortunately there is a gap in the ship's log for headlands and, in some cases, with sketches or even the period that would have placed him in New water-colours of coastlines and foreign craft. Zealand, posing the question of whether he did The Museum of the East India Marine Society was reach New Zealand at all. If not, then it could be established in 1799 to house the collection of presumed that he may have acquired the artefacts “natural and artificial curiosities” brought back by during his ten-week stay in Sydney before departing Salem's captains and merchants from those far off in early March 1806. Careful on-going research as a shores. Its extensive library of logs and journals were result of this project has helped to dispel some invaluable aids to captains sailing routes for the first previously held assumptions that much of the time. It was moved to the East India Marine Hall in material in the collection was of Northern origin. For 1824 and renamed the Peabody Institute in 1867, example, can we be certain that the first and 48 after philanthropist George Peabody. With the sometimes the only New Zealand port of call for amalgamation of the Essex Institute in 1992 it is now reprovisioning many of these ships on these early known as the Peabody Essex Museum and is the voyages was in fact the Bay of Islands? oldest continuously operating museum in the U.S. Revelations Early contact – New Zealand connections – In this respect the exercise was very useful in making taonga

museums aotearoa one more aware of the tendency with which we here – Salem had an extensive trade passing through the in New Zealand assign provenance and age by Pacific Islands to China and occasionally local vessels comparison with established stylistic attributions, that te ara CARVED PIPE IN THE CARVED DOG IN THE COLLECTION OF THE COLLECTION OF THE PEABODY PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM ESSEX MUSEUM ATTRIBUTED TO ATTRIBUTED TO ROTORUA ROTORUA CARVER ANAHA TE CARVER PATOROMU TAMATEA RAHUI AS A RESULT OF THE AS A RESULT OF THE RESEARCH EXCHANGE VISIT. RESEARCH EXCHANGE VISIT. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: PEABODY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM, SALEM ESSEX MUSEUM, SALEM in some respects have become almost “gospel”. In Literary lights order to make more valid provenance assumptions, By the time we reached the House of Seven Gables examining all evidence is crucial; in this case this (or more accurately the Turner Ingersoll House went as far as plotting the course from the ship’s log ca. 1668) on our last day in Salem, Hanna was well to determine the supposed destination. The research versed in the proper etiquette expected when we undertook together in Salem merely skimmed the visiting historic houses, earning “what a well surface; further probing and comparison will be behaved child” comments from the necessary to try to unlock some of the tribal histories intriguing, informed and good-humoured associated with many of these taonga. guide. This was the actual house that Guided by youthful experience inspired the author Salem resident Nathaniel Hawthorne to pen the acclaimed eponymous While in Salem my family and I also passed the novel, and other classics of American time in the usual tourist manner by visiting local literature, including The Scarlet Letter, after sites of interest. The State of Massachusetts service as Surveyor in the US Custom House at THE WEST INDIA GOODS abounds in historic houses and Salem is no STORE CA. 1800 WAS ONE OF Salem. If the shop is a measure of the museum, this MANY SUCH SHOPS THAT exception. Our first Saturday in the town was spent LINED SALEM'S WATERFRONT one probably rated a four out of five with the usual IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY, walking along the famous Chestnut Street, trinkets supplemented by a good selection of books PROVIDING ITS CITIZENS WITH awestruck by inscriptions on plaques attached to the ACCESS TO THE LUXURY - the majority, as to be expected, were reprints of GOODS OBTAINED FROM THE houses, dating them anything from the mid 1600s FAR EAST. Hawthorne's literary works. My only purchase was to the early 1900s. The street was also home to ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: CHANEL an attractive book entitled Twenty Days with Julian CLARKE Steven Phillips, a major collector and donor to the and Little Bunny by Papa, based on Hawthorne's PEM, and in particular to its Oceanic collection, note books recording his experience left in including several Mäori pieces. It is the only house sole charge of his five year old son for three on the street that is open to the public and has a weeks in Salem in 1851. 150 years later, I guided tour. This became our first ‘kid’s eye view’ of could identify with that, so it became the Salem. Totally befuddled with why we were in this “must have” for the plane ride home. house that was empty of people, my daughter Hana piped up during the tour, “This is no one's house, By the time we headed to Washington the

Mummy”, looking at me rather bemused, as though poor soul was, I think, experiencing museum THE CUSTOM HOUSE BUILT we were complete idiots to be walking around in fatigue! Washington was an essential on the itinerary IN 1829 IN THE FEDERAL STYLE WHERE NATHANIEL someone else's house when it was apparent no one to check out the newly opened National Museum of HAWTHORNE WORKED AS the American Indian (NMAI). The trip to NMAI is CUSTOMS SURVEYOR FROM actually lived there! Clever cookie! 1846 - 1849. another story in itself and by the time my tribe gets ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: As soon as we got home to our apartment (itself a CHANEL CLARKE anything near its own fully functioning museum, my three-story Federal-style building ca.1805, known as daughter will be a good candidate for Director with the Gilbert Chadwick House, owned by the museum years of guiding experience behind her! and used as scholars' quarters), Hana professed that she was a guide and jabbered away about nothing Not the end of the story in particular directing with her hands “and over here The exchange was a wonderful chance to look at we have the bedroom”, scoring full marks for U.S. museums and in particular to view some of our animation! She is very bossy by nature, so I guess taonga that somehow made it to that side of the 49 that being a guide was something right up her alley. world. The project will be ongoing as we try to piece On subsequent tours of the apartment she informed together the evidence and contemplate some of the us all that, by the way, photography was not journeys of these taonga across the oceans. At this allowed, and “Oh, please don't touch the walls!” stage all I can say is “Watch this space”. Moreover when I sat on the pull out couch in the Chanel Clarke (Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngati Porou apartment trying to listen intently to this guide's museums aotearoa

and Tainui) is Curator Mäori at Auckland Museum – very engrossing spiel, I was promptly told off for Tamaki Paenga Hira. sitting on the bed! te ara International Report

Attingham and beyond – personal perspectives

ANGELA LASSIG's eyes were opened during her experience on The Clark Collection/Creative New Zealand Scholarship

Newsam and Hardwick Hall in Nottinghamshire; and Boughton House, Stowe House and Landscape Garden, Claydon House, Woburn Abbey, Chicheley Hall, Wimpole Hall, Moggerhanger Park, Avenue House, Dynevor House and Waddesdon Manor in Bedsfordshire and Hertsfordshire.

Internship insights

The Clark Collection/Creative New Zealand Scholarship incorporates a number of short internships in addition to attendance at the Summer School. This makes for an extremely stimulating and comprehensive two months of study and active INTERIOR OF A BEDROOM, BRODSWORTH HALL, SOUTH YORKSHIRE. involvement in the British heritage sector. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: ANGELA LASSIG In 2003, the first year of the scholarship, three All around the houses internships were undertaken – at English Heritage, In late June 2005, I arrived in London for the start of the National Trust and at the Victoria & Albert my term as the Clark Collection/Creative New Museum. In 2004 an additional study day was Zealand Scholar for 2005. included with staff of The Royal Collection. In 2005 I was fortunate to have the day at The Royal The centrepiece of the Scholarship is The Attingham Collection extended into a week, allowing me the Summer School, founded in 1952 by Helen opportunity to work alongside key staff involved in Lowenthal and Sir George Trevelyan. The Attingham exhibition development. Summer School provides the scholar with the opportunity to study English country houses, their 1. English Heritage contents and their settings. The second of the My first internship, with English Heritage, was School's three goals particularly applied to my areas undertaken soon after I arrived in the United of specialization – "to study the contents of these Kingdom, on the 19th June 2005. English Heritage buildings – their paintings, sculpture, furniture, is a major British heritage organisation with ceramics, silver, textiles and other applied arts – as responsibility mainly for historic sites and the historic well as the planning, decorative treatment and the environment. It is government-funded and has wider 50 use of the interiors". responsibilities with national and local government.

In 2005, together with forty-seven fellow students, I The Brodsworth Challenge spent eighteen days studying twenty-four properties Because of my specialisation in dress and textiles, including West Dean House, Arundel Castle, Uppark, I was assigned a project at Brodsworth Hall, an Petwork House and The Royal Pavilion in Sussex; Italianate Victorian mansion in South Yorkshire,

museums aotearoa Broughton Castle, Kedleston Hall, Calke Abbey,

– acquired by English Heritage in 1990. Chatsworth, Bolsover Castle, The Workhouse, Southwell, Flintham Hall, Winkburn Hall, Temple My project, devised by English Heritage Head te ara Curator, Martin Allfrey, and Brodsworth Curators Crosby Stevens and Caroline Carr-Whitworth, was to make some suggestions for the redisplay of two rooms in the upstairs West Wing, which had never been open to the public before.

I had only a week to get to know the property, to come to grips with the very unusual, even radical approach that English Heritage took in its BRODSWORTH HALL, SOUTH YORKSHIRE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: ANGELA LASSIG interpretation of Brodsworth Hall, and to formulate my report. English Heritage's approach to the as a colleague to the extent that within the first conservation of Brodsworth's interiors and its hour I was 'mucking in' with the Curator Caroline interpretation of the contents is visible in the very De Guitaut, the designer and installers of one of the fabric of the house, the seemingly disorganised exhibitions opening in the State Rooms of contents, and the way these contents are displayed. Buckingham Palace in the Summer of 2005. This The challenge for Brodsworth's curators is to clearly exhibition, with its long title: Queen Elizabeth's convey to the visitor the rigorous yet subtle White Wardrobe and the 1938 State Visit to France, approach to the conservation of the interiors and explored the pale and beautiful wardrobe designed the multi-layered presentation of the history of the by Norman Hartnell for the late Queen Mother, continuous occupation of the house. It was my which has been immortalised in evocative perception that much of the detailed and subtle photographs by Cecil Beaton. work undertaken by English Heritage was largely Rolling up our sleeves for royalty invisible, and was in fact, so subtle that some members of the public left the house thinking that When I arrived on July 25th, the exhibition was due the interiors were awaiting conservation! This led to open to the public in five days time, and to be me to recommend in my report the use of the two inspected by Her Majesty the next day, so it was ‘all rooms awaiting development as interpretation hands on deck’ to complete the exhibition, as well rooms. I won't elaborate here further on my actual as to keep the space tidy for any royal visitations. report; suffice to say that I felt confident that I had The press had also started to visit, so it was a little made a solid contribution to the discussion on the chaotic at times. During those interviews I made future development of the two rooms. myself scarce, but useful, by assisting the medal specialist with the displays of all the orders of the My experience at Brodsworth, effectively as a Commonwealth that were being prepared in the volunteer, was one of the best I had. I was treated adjacent ballroom. I was alarmed when asked to as a colleague and the curators were extremely iron the wonderful woven ribbons that accompanied interested to have my thoughts on their upcoming the orders, but managed to negotiate the use of a project, even though my direct areas of responsibility clean souvenir tea towel of Scotland from one of do not involve interpretation of historic interiors. I the installers to use as a barrier between the warm learnt that I could be stretched and that I was able iron and the ribbons! to apply my skills much more broadly than I had thought, and was actually very proud of the work I had an extremely enjoyable time at the Palace and that I did in that week. learnt a great deal about the major effort required 51 to transform a living palace into a tourist attraction 2. The Royal Collection which includes major exhibitions. This work often My second internship took me from the depths of has to occur within a fortnight or less and involves, South Yorkshire to the heart of London and into the for example, the lifting of all the historic carpets and front door of one of the most famous landmarks in the laying of new carpet. museums aotearoa

Britain – Buckingham Palace. – I felt that my skills were valued and utilised but I This experience again was one where I was treated was surprised to encounter an assumption at the te ara Royal Collection that a Scholars to date, which I believe to be a deliberate curator was also a ploy to make the New Zealander homesick, ensuring conservator and an their return home! In Clandon's grounds rests Guide installer. Fortunately multi- Sophia's whare, Hinemihi, and inside the house is a tasking was something New Zealand-themed museum including objects, that I have experienced – mainly Mäori, assembled by the 4th Earl of Onslow, and very much enjoyed – Governor of New Zealand between 1889 and 1892. while working in other Further afield institutions. The other four properties – Tyntesfield in North I had a similarly positive Somerset, Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire, Blickling experience while based Hall and the National Trust Conservation Studio in

VIEW FROM INNER DOME WINDOW AT BRIGHTON PAVILION. for the remainder of the Norfolk and Powys Castle in Welshpool – taught me ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: ANGELA LASSIG week at Kensington Palace more about both English interiors and particularly where I assisted the Curator English textiles, as well as the day to day issues of of Royal and Ceremonial Dress, Joanna Marschner, running properties, through discussions with my hosts – usually National Trust area managers with research for their current exhibition on dresses responsible either for Interiors or the Building worn by Princess Diana and photographed by Mario Structures. Testino. There was also a little time to use the extraordinary library to do some research on items of 4. The Victoria and Albert Museum ceremonial dress in Te Papa's collection. At the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V & A), 3. The National Trust where I undertook my last internship, I was based in the Metalwork and Jewellery Department. Here I My next internship – with the National Trust – took worked in practical terms as a volunteer Curator, place immediately after Kensington Palace. The carrying out day-to-day curatorial tasks such as National Trust is a charitable trust with major cataloguing and researching collections. It was responsibility for the preservation of built heritage satisfying, as well as encouraging, knowing that my and their interiors in Great Britain. My internship work was directly adding to the curatorial effort by included the study of five properties in five days, and the department's staff on the new Medieval and a meeting in London with key National Trust staff. Renaissance Galleries, planned to open in 2009 as part of the ten year FuturePlan programme to The National Trust internship essentially offers the revitalise the 150-year-old museum. At the same scholar the chance to extend their knowledge in time, I was supported by introductions in meetings their field/s of expertise by selecting properties rich with various key staff to learn about the in material relating to those areas, as well as to development of other new galleries that form part gain understandings of the way the National Trust of this adventurous and exciting FuturePlan, which I cares for, and administers, its properties. The believe could prove an excellent model for natural exchanges between the scholar and managing change in the redevelopment of galleries National Trust staff provide an excellent 52 and museums in New Zealand. opportunity for sharing information about the Museological make-over scholar's institution and country. I was fortunate in being able to spend some time The New Zealand connection with Christopher Wilk, the Curator responsible for All the properties, apart from one, Clandon Park, overseeing the development of the British Galleries were suggested by me and decided on in museums aotearoa which I feel represent the most exciting and – collaboration with National Trust staff. Clandon Park, innovative development in the interpretation of the in Surrey, has been on the itinerary of all the decorative arts and design in recent history. He and te ara colleague Nick Humphrey have written an extremely experience. Being a visual person, this informative book about the new galleries, titled new learning will be invaluable in my Creating the British Galleries at the V&A: A study in work and career. Decorative arts museology (reviewed by Louis Le Vaillant in Te Ara, objects in New Zealand collections tend 2005, (30 (1), p 44). I highly commend this as a to be divorced from their original must-read for any person interested in cutting-edge historical context. Attingham has museology. allowed me to reconnect such objects with that context. I feel that the V&A experience was mutually beneficial and is the type of positive experience As well as taking from this experience, that the New Zealand museum worker, who is I hope that, even in some small way, I interested in professional development overseas, was able to contribute positively to the should be seeking. organisations that have assisted me in such a profound way. One of the most Extending professional networks FLINTHAM HALL enduring benefits of the Scholarship will be the EXTERIOR. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: In my experience with British museums and other ongoing relationship with my new colleagues in ANGELA LASSIG cultural institutions, there is goodwill towards Britain's most significant heritage organisations 'foreign' visiting curators and always jobs to be and with my 48 new friends from England, done, as there are in many of our institutions. Europe and America. Working in a museum overseas offers an excellent Acknowledgements opportunity to experience different systems and ways of operating, and also to make time to talk to This wonderful experience would not have been other colleagues in the institution and often to be possible without the vision and generosity of Errol introduced to other institutions' staff. Clark, founder of this Scholarship and sponsor of my attendance at the 2005 Attingham Trust Absolutely Positively Attingham Summer School. My thanks also must go to The Attingham Trust Summer School alone would Creative NZ for their support and partnership of have been an astonishing opportunity. Combined the Scholarship by providing funds to make this with the four Internships, this was, for me, a once- trip possible, and to the NZ-UK Link Foundation in-a-lifetime experience. Being able to extend one's and the British Council for organising and knowledge and experience alongside peers and sponsoring my flights. I would like to thank Ross colleagues is incredibly valuable. For me it provided Tanner, former Chief Executive of Museums much positive reinforcement, which in turn gave me Aotearoa, for his hard work on grant applications the confidence to ask the questions I needed and for his advice and support, and Louis Le answered, and enabled me to participate fully in all Vaillant, the 2004 Scholar, for his practical advice these immersive experiences. and excellent suggestions. My employer, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, I have developed a very good understanding of the generously supported my Scholarship by allowing major heritage organisations in Britain, as well as the me the time away, and for this I am also grateful. issues confronted and dealt with on a daily basis. From these organisations I gathered some great Angela Lassig was awarded The Clark ideas for different modes of communication and Collection/Creative New Zealand Scholarship for 53 interpretation of heritage items. 2005. She is currently employed as Senior Curator of I now have a much stronger contextual framework History at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa in which to place my existing knowledge and new Tongarewa where she specializes in Dress & Textiles, learning. Armed with a much clearer understanding Decorative Arts & Design. Born and trained in Australia, Angela has worked at the Powerhouse of the different historical and stylistic periods prior museums aotearoa

Museum in Sydney and the Auckland Museum and – to the 18th century, I can visualise the distinctive this year marks her 22nd year in the curatorial field. characteristics of each style from first hand te ara Obituary

John C. Yaldwyn 1929 - 2005

SANDY BARTLE honours an exceptional colleague and committed curator, with whom he was proud to work.

John Yaldwyn was Director of the National Museum time, with many expeditions (see photo) and new of New Zealand from 1980 to 1989. These were discoveries. His children John and Sarah were born turbulent years for the Museum, just before it was during these years. Finally, he rejoined the Dominion incorporated into Te Papa. John's caring and Museum as Assistant Director in 1969 and, from supportive style ensured that the transition was well that point on, was able to provide the enthusiastic managed, that staff morale remained high, and that leadership and strategic direction for which he is so collections remained intact. warmly remembered.

A natural history Leading from the front

John was a naturalist with broad interests in biology His period as Director was illuminated by his wide as well as in the humanities. As a schoolboy in knowledge of, and interest in, all matters relating to Christchurch in the 1940s he became very interested museums, especially collections, research, and JOHN YALDWYN AT SEA OFF QUEENSLAND IN 1962, ON in archaeology and in fossils, especially birds, exhibitions. He had a clear vision of the role of THE FIRST-EVER SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO SWAIN associated with middens and natural sites. His museums as guardians of the nation's heritage and REEFS, COLLECTING MARINE interests were fostered by R. A. Falla and Roger Duff as promoters of knowledge. He was a very kind LIFE FOR THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. COURTESY OF at the Canterbury Museum, and shared with his man, taking a personal interest and concern in the JOHN YALDWYN JUNIOR lifetime friend, Elliot Dawson. The first of his more welfare of all who worked for him. His enthusiasm than 100 scientific papers was published in the was infectious. Journal of the Polynesian Society in 1952. Over the John established the Museum's Conservation next 50 years he managed to squeeze in another 15 Laboratory, which went a long way towards papers and notes on archaeology and fossils, being ensuring the long-term care of the collections. particularly proud of his 2002 paper on Gideon Under his direction the Museum Library became one Mantell's historic find in England of the first of the finest natural history libraries in the Southern iguanodon tooth, now at Te Papa. This provided the Hemisphere. John was the first Director to be fully first proof of the existence of dinosaurs. In this active in caring for the National Museum records article he was able to bring together his interests in and documentary history, extending back to 1865. the history of science, in palaeontology, and in museum collections as historical records. He actively strengthened the Mäori collections and appointed the first Mäori staff. When the Marine research interests opportunity came to host the Te Mäori exhibition, In 1949 John returned to Wellington to study he enthusiastically embraced it, thus laying the zoology at Victoria University, working during his foundation for biculturalism at Te Papa today. vacations at the Museum. He immediately became Curatorial commitment very interested in marine biology, particularly John strongly supported the work of AGMANZ and crustacea (prawns and crabs). It wasn't long before facilitated co-operation among museums in New he was participating in the kind of deep-sea Zealand and Australia. expeditions he loved, to Cook Strait, the Bay of 54 Plenty, and the Chatham Islands. Following a brief During his “retirement”, John continued to work as period as Assistant Zoologist at the Museum, he was an Honorary Research Associate of Te Papa, awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study marine successfully completing a number of major research biology at the Allan Hancock Foundation, University projects begun much earlier. The death of his of Southern California, in 1960-61. At this time he beloved wife, Barbara, in 2003, and ill-health during also visited the Smithsonian, and established life- the last few years cast a shadow over what was museums aotearoa

– long connections with that great organisation. otherwise a very happy time for him.

He then took a post as a marine curator at the Sandy Bartle, Curator of Birds at Te Papa since 1976, te ara Australian Museum, Sydney, a happy and productive wrote this summary of John Yaldwyn's life and work. Obituary

Michael Ames 1933 - 2006

SUSAN ABASA remembers a true friend of New Zealand's museum community whose pioneering work in Canada encouraged new kinds of relationships between First Nations and museums and whose empathy and example emboldened museums and Mäori here to explore novel ways of working alongside each other.

“Be bold, be radical, use your imagination, forget traditionalists alike to address the political and about stuffy museum practice and have fun”, said economic ideologies under which museums are Michael Ames on his retirement as Director of the increasingly obliged to operate. Museum of Anthropology at the University of British He championed the independence and autonomy of Columbia. museums – not as ivory towers distanced from the This approach to experimental museology infused communities they serve – but as places of profound his teaching, his writing and his museum practice. social relevance and civic responsibility where the serious questions of representation, ownership and It is not surprising that he found a place to stand in control could be debated. this country. Ames' relationship with New Zealand's museums deepened following a series of visits here A rare gift beginning in the mid 1980s. Familiarity with issues “If the rationale for anthropology”, he once wrote, related to indigenous peoples and museums offered “is the careful study of others to better understand opportunities to examine parallel perspectives about ourselves, if knowledge of the self passes through Canadian and New Zealand experiences. To these others, then equal attention needs to be given to discussions he brought not only his wide ranging what returns: there lies a direction for reconstituting expertise but also his deep engagement with the scholarly and curatorial relationships along more First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. democratic, responsive, reciprocal and critical lines”. Challenge and change If self-knowledge passes through others, then Michael did not skirt the difficult issues. Whether as Michael Ames' scholarship, his writings, work and a contributor to the Taonga Mäori Conference, a vision of what museums might become, are a participant in local seminars, or as a mentor, he was continuing source of knowledge and understanding. alert to the tough questions which disturbed existing Michael Ames writings include: museum prerogatives. Sensitive to the vicissitudes confronting museums, he drew on case studies A selection of essays, Cannibal Tours and Glass which illustrated both the deficiencies and the Boxes: The Anthropology of Museums (1992); virtues of their practices. Critically alert to their 'Biculturalism in exhibits' in Taonga Mäori shortcomings, he remained, nevertheless, optimistic Conference Proceedings (1990); 'How to decorate a that museums could be reconfigured to better serve house: The renegotiation of cultural representation the interests and needs of indigenous peoples. And at the University of British Columbia Museum of he worked to do just that. Seeking beneficial change Anthropology' in Museum Anthropology volume 22, through positive action, his call was clear: “no no. 3 (1999); 'Museology Interrupted' in Museum curation without consultation”; “no curation International volume 57, no. 3, 44-50 (2005). without co-operation” and “curation through Susan F. Abasa is a Lecturer in Museums Studies at negotiation”. That deceptively simple credo, easier Massey University. 55 said than done, was at the heart of his belief that sharing authority enhances understanding.

With an informed appreciation of history Ames sought not only to critically assess museums' contributions but also to locate that critique within museums aotearoa social, political and economic contexts. With – considered prescience and sustained intellectual probity he challenged the ideologues, populists and te ara Book review

Interpreting Historic House Planning for people the example of slavery is inevitably cited: our house museum experiences The authors stress that planning is Museums in the Bay of Islands relative to the essential for interpretation to be Treaty of Waitangi story can be Jessica Foy Donnelly (Ed.) 2002 engaging and effective, and that an equally challenging. American Association for State interpretation plan influences nearly and Local History, Altamira every on-site choice made, even The advice presented in these essays Press, Walnut Creek, California defines the site's management. As is less prescriptive than eminently Paperback 272 pages well, furnishings and landscape plans practical, and clearly understands the ISBN 0-7591-0251-1 are as integral to successful house realities likely to be met by those $27.95 US museum interpretation as to working with house museums. The management. Practical and theoretical Introduction opens with the Reviewed by KATE MARTIN advice, given with case studies, admission that house museum emphasises these plans' ability to interpretation “…can be exciting and This book recognises that house contribute to maximising visitor invigorating or lacklustre and just museums have been conservative in experiences. The creation of plain boring.” How familiar! This both their origins and purposes, and successful tours, with or without book challenges those responsible for slow to change. In addressing this, guides, and the importance of historic houses to embrace change, emphasis is placed on developing training guides in the house's history, broaden perspectives and never well-researched knowledge of the interpretation philosophy and the accept mediocrity in presenting the site, its surrounds and contextual necessary people skills are discussed, past – a timely reminder to us in New history, and on its content-related together with the significance of Zealand as the Historic Places Trust strengths and weaknesses – the understanding rapidly changing celebrates its first half century. alternative lack of knowledge (backed technologies and increasingly diverse with physical evidence) being no Kate Martin has worked with a range and sophisticated audiences. And to credibility, no visitors. of museums and is currently manager achieve all of this, the need to gain of the New Zealand Historic Places The thirteen contributors, with the enthusiasm and support of the Trust property, Pompallier Mission in wisdom gained from wide institution and its partners is the Bay of Islands. experiences of working with house observed. museums, consider the historic Interpretive challenges development of the house museum movement in the US (which is easily Interpretation issues explored include paralleled with ours in New Zealand) addressing minority histories, and and the need to look at familiar linking academic research with public concerns from new perspectives and accessibility. While discussing with new techniques. Their essays integrating diversity of life and activity reflect challenges common to all into the story to expand its truth and museums, and acknowledge that meaning, the authors caution against those who manage house museums not using sound reasoning and must keep abreast of developments in careful analysis of accurate history the wider museum, heritage and and responsible research to 56 history fields. Underpinned always understand and present both fact and with descriptions of developing values conjecture. They emphasise new, – some changing, some constant, popular and sometimes controversial spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic ways to look at the past and stress and monetary – and peppered the responsibility to convey a fuller, more inclusive history. This is all

museums aotearoa throughout with further references,

– this is a useful and relevant book for relevant to us in New Zealand. For both heritage manager and student. instance, as an American publication, te ara The National Preservation Offi ce, Te Tari Tohu Taonga, offers a For all preservation advice and to arrange for national advisory service on the care of documentary heritage workshops in your region, please contact for museums, libraries, archives, historical societies, iwi, häpu, The National Preservation Offi ce whanau and Mäori organisations. Te Tari Tohu Taonga We work in collaboration with all parts of the cultural heritage sector National Library of New Zealand to provide assessments of collections and provide advice and Te Puna Mätauranga o Aotearoa workshops/publications on a range of preservation-related issues Cnr Aitken and Molesworth Sts. including PO Box 1467 WELLINGTON • Collection care – dealing with a range of formats such as photographs, books, works of art on paper, documents, Tel: 00 64 4 474 3000 sound recordings Fax: 00 64 4 474 3063 Email: [email protected] • Exhibitions Web: www.natlib.govt.nz/npo • Building design for environmental standards and managing risks

• Digital preservation and access

Archival Quality • Acid Free Adhesives • Board • Card • Paper • Boxes • Envelopes Folders • Polyester Film • Enclosures • Photographic Storage • Tapes • Tissue • Resin • Cleaning Materials and more... 09 425 7380 PO BOX 646 • WARKWORTH