Tamaki Paenga HiraThe Maori name for the Auckland Museum is Tamaki Paenga Hira - Auckland´s memorial to fallen chiefs and their gathered taonga Tamaki is Auckland, the net of Maki. Paenga is to ceremonially layout, heap together on a marae, a margin, a chiefly boundary and a reference to those fallen in battle. Hira is numerous, abundant, important, of consequence, great. During the Taumata´s deliberations a name was sought that would capture former Director Dr Gilbert Archey´s Whaowhia (fill with treasures) and the Maori Language Commission´s 1992 title, Te Papa Whakahiku . Under the name Tamaki Paenga Hira we draw together those earlier meanings in a new name, which is uniquely of our region and universally representative of our collective history and peoples. |
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