November 16, 2021
Ethnographic journeys broke new ground
A series of epic journeys a century ago to record Māori cultural practices threatened by a postwar pandemic are the subject of a new book.
In Hei Taonga Mā Ngā Uri Whakatipu; Treasures for the rising generations, contemporary scholars Wayne Ngata, Anne Salmond, Natalie Robertson, Amiria Salmond, Monty Soutar, Billie Lythberg, James Schuster and Conal McCarthy look at the four expeditions undertaken by the Dominion Museum between 1919 and 1923.
They were among the first ethnographic expeditions in the world to use cutting-edge technologies including moving film and wax cylinder recordings.
These were used to record everyday activities as well as major hui including the 1919 Hui Aroha in Gisborne to welcome East Coast members of the Pioneer Battalion returning from World War I, and the welcome for the Prince of Wales to Rotorua in 1920.
Dame Anne, whose great great grandfather James Macdonald was the museum’s film maker and photographer, says the trips were backed by Apirana Ngata who feared the loss of culture as influenza ripped though the Māori population.
She says the book’s title comes from one of the kaumātua being recorded.
“As he was going a tauparapara he said: ‘I’m doing this for the rising generation,'” she says.
Hei Taonga Mā Ngā Uri Whakatipu is published by Te Papa Press.