Māori

Explore our online content

Here you can discover our special online hubs celebrating Matariki and Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Auckland Museum at Home

Matariki

The mid-winter rise of Matariki in the pre-dawn sky signals the beginning of the Maori New Year. It was a time for whānau to come together, celebrate their joys, look forward to the future and reflect on the loss of loved ones that had passed. Knowledge and history were also shared through tikanga, waiata, whakangāhau, whakairo, raranga and pūrakau. In more recent times, it has become a special time of year to respect the land we live on, celebrate the unique place we live in and continue to share and grow with each other.

Explore our Matariki homepage to learn more and find out ways you can get involved.

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori

He mihi tēnei ki a kōutou kātoa i runga i Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

Haere mai ki Tāmaki Paenga Hira ki te whakanui o tō tātou reo rangatira mō Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2021. Ka nui aku mihi ki a kōutou kātoa e hāpai ana i tēnei taonga, te reo taketake o Aotearoa. No reira, kia kaha te reo Māori.

Nau mai, haere mai, whakatau mai rā.

Greetings to you all during Māori Language Week.

Welcome to Auckland Museum’s web page dedicated to celebrating our chiefly language for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2021. Congratulations to everyone who upholds this treasured taonga, our indigenous language and its place in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Greetings to you all, welcome.

Te Marae Ātea Māori Court

The textiles cases: a redress

In 2022, Dr Kahutoi Te Kanawa, weaver and Pou Ārahi Curator Māori at Auckland Museum led a changeout of the textiles cases in Te Marae Ātea Māori Court. In this blog, discover the kaupapa behind the change and what this exciting renewal means for the gallery.

Haeata

A kōrero with artist Ngataiharuru Taepa

Keen-eyed manuhiri (visitors) to Māori Court will notice a change: a new 12-panel kōwhaiwhai artwork now graces the walls. Called Haeata and created by renowned artist Ngataiharuru Taepa, the work steps from the infinite potential of Te Pō to the brightness of Te Ao Mārama, speaking only in the cursive of kōwhaiwhai patterns.

In this blog, we kōrero with Prof Taepa about growing up amongst artists, kōwhaiwhai as language, and having work on the walls of a space filled with the incredible work of ancestors.

The Ngā Kākano Series

The Ngā Kākano event series was established at Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland Museum, as an opportunity to promote the social and cultural ideas, knowledge and expertise from within our diverse communities, in this case, Māori and Pasifika communities who have a strong association to our world-class cultural collections.

Discover

Phalacrocorax carbo LB4258

Research

Te Awe

Te Awe was a project about enriching, reorganising, and improving the care of our 10,000+ taonga Māori in a way that is embedded in Mātauranga Māori. Through this mahi Auckland Museum made the taonga Māori collection more visible and accessible to iwi, hāpu, whānau, Museum staff, researchers, and the public.

Discover this important mahi, and the people who conributed to it.

Your Museum transformed

Te Ao Mārama

The renovation of the Museum's south entrance has been an opportunity for us to reconceptualise the Museum as a whole, living thing.

Learn about the visible – and invisible – ways that tikanga Māori is at work in Te Ao Mārama, the new South Atrium. Discover this important mahi, and the people who conributed to it.

Your Museum