Museum removes Maori artefacts

Objections to the showing of Maori artefacts at a new museum in Kaiaua in the Firth of Thames have led to their removal from display.

Ngati Paoa's representative on the Hauraki Maori Trust Board, Glen Tupuhi, said he was opposed to the collection and display of artefacts at the new Rangipo museum.

Rangipo is the site of a Maori pa south of Kaiaua and the museum was to include tours of the pa and the surrounding farm and displays of Maori and European hand tools.

Mr Tupuhi said recent coverage in the Hauraki Herald about the museum promoted a "finders keepers, losers weepers" approach to Maori artefacts.

"Ngati Paoa have a simple policy in regards to the finding of protected objects, taonga or artefacts. If it's found in our traditional or shared tribal estate then the object belongs to Ngati Paoa or our Whanaunga of Hauraki and any decision not to declare the find is theft," Mr Tupuhi said.

Museum owner Rob McCartie, whose family have lived at Rangipo for several decades, said he was "disappointed" at the opposition to his museum.

Mr McCartie said Mr Tupuhi had not contacted him with his concerns but he had removed the Maori artefacts from display to avoid further complaints.

A passionate believer in the need to protect the Rangipo area's heritage, Mr McCartie was "disappointed" he could no longer display the hand tools.

Mr Tupuhi said Ngati Paoa had been forced from the Kaiaua/Miranda area in the 1860s in a "brutal attack" by the then Government. This attack left wahi tapu and other sites sacred to Ngati Paoa exposed to exploitation, he said.

Mr McCartie said the items in his collection had been tested and dated to before Ngati Paoa's settlement of the area. He said they were, in fact, artefacts from Nga Uri O Te Po, a group Ngati Paoa displaced. The farm at Rangipo had also been investigated and excavated by archaeologists in the past, Mr McCartie said.

The Rangipo Museum is now open and is signposted from the road between Kaiaua and Waitakaruru.

- © Fairfax NZ News