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Download AudioOne of the country’s most experienced conservators of taonga Māori says it’s important to spread those skills among iwi and hapū so they can care for their own taonga.
The country’s heritage and archive organisations are hosting a symposium this week for iwi archivists as part of Manatū Taonga’s Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme.
Vicki-Anne Heikell, a field conservator for the Department of Internal Affairs, says it’s not only skills which can be passed on.
“These kaimahi are working day to day with collections that are important to their iwi and hapū and giving them the confidence to know that actually they know what to do, they are grounded in their own tūrangawaewae, we just need to give them confidence and some of the tips that we learned by going away to university, we went to Australia to train as conservators,” she says.
Ms Heikell says whānau can do their own conservation by putting photographs, documents and other taonga in the most dry and stable part of the house, and making sure people in photographs are properly identified..
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