.

click on the spinning logo to
return to the home page

Image 11

Image 12

Many of the artefacts kept in New Zealand galleries and museums are Maori taonga. These include hooks, weapons and ornaments made from nephrite jade (pounamu), whale bone, and other precious materials.There are beautiful cloaks (korowai) woven from flax and decorated with birds’ feathers or dog skin.

There are wooden carvings of many different sorts, together with larger objects like big carved wooden war canoes and carved meeting houses.

Image 10
Matua (fish hook), made out of pounamu (greenstone), Te Papa Museum, Wellington Image 11 - Heru (Maori comb), Te Papa Museum, Wellington

Maori taonga include intangible objects, for example, the Maori language is considered a taonga, and so are all the stories and traditions which have been passed down.

Visitors who are able to visit a marae have the opportunity to see the taonga on display and to listen to some of these traditions which have passed down.

Wellington is home to Te Papa - Our Place, New Zealand’s new national museum. Te Papa features an exceptional display of Maori taonga, presented alongside historical and social information, Visitors can gain an excellent insight into Maori life. The exhibits offer bold, new ways of viewing New Zealand culture and have already won Te Papa international acclaim. Other museums throughout New Zealand also hold fine collections of Maori taonga.

Image 12
Te Marae, Te Papa Museum, Wellington

Maori taonga also include living things such as mountains, rivers, trees and Maori elders (kaumatua) are regarded as important taonga.

He iti ra, he iti mapihi pounamu.
Small indeed, but made of greenstone.