Ko ngā taonga tuku iho a Te Waka Huia, i whakaemihia e George Pain i te rau tau ki muri. He reo ngū, he kōrero kua ngaro ki rāhaki, takoto noa. I pōhiritia ngā ringa rehe toi o Te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui ki te whakaoho i te mauri o ngā taonga nei. Nā te wānanga, me te koi o aua ringa rehe, ka hangaia ngā taonga hou hei hoa mo ngā taonga o nehe kia puawai ano.

He mea tauawhi te whakaaturanga e Te Waka Huia me Toi Māori Aotearoa.

Wellington Museum | Te Waka Huia O Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho holds taonga Māori collected by George Pain, a late-nineteenth-century businessman based in Martinborough. Unfortunately, the history of these taonga was not documented and they have been sitting silently in the collection store.

There are thirty-five taonga Māori in the George Pain collection including a wide variety of functional objects such as fishing hooks, stone adzes and knotted wood mallets, wooden hand-held weaponry and carved walking sticks.

Te Ohonga features new work by nineteen Māori artists and artist collectives who whakapapa to Te Ātiawa, Taranaki, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa iwi and others. Video interviews with the artists form part of the exhibition, document their responses to the George Pain collection and provide rare glimpses into the wealth of Māori creative spaces in the region. The artists have not only enhanced our understanding of the Pain collection, they have also created new works that awhi, support and embrace, selected taonga and kōrero, speak, to the original makers.

This exhibition was developed by Wellington Museum in partnership with Toi Māori Aotearoa Māori Arts New Zealand.