DISTINCTLY US
HEI TAONGA MĀ NGĀ URI WHAKATIPU, edited by Dr Wayne Ngata, Dame Anne Salmond et al. (Te Papa Press, $75)
“E ngā iwi, hei kōrero tēnei nāku – ko ēnei waiata waiho iho hei whakamaharatanga ki a koutou, mō ēnei wāe haere ake nei/This is my message to you, the iwi: these songs [and images] are left for you to remember in the times to come.” So said Āpirana Ngata (later Sir) in 1923. Ngata was pivotal in sending out a team of ethnographers from the Dominion Museum to record tikanga Māori (ancestral practices) that, in the wake of World War I and a raging influenza epidemic, he feared would disappear. It was the first project of its kind in the world by indigenous leaders. The team, including Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Buck) and Elsdon Best, used film edited by an expert group including Dr Wayne Ngata and Dame Anne Salmond and produced with the aid of a Marsden grant, is a taonga in presenting these images and memories, spotlighting those involved and exploring the vital work they did.
