Kā Taoka

Please join us for a floor talk by Rachel Wesley (Kāi Tahu; Curator Māori, Otago Museum) as she discusses the context and the history of the extraordinary Otago Museum taoka included in the exhibition.

About the exhibition:
Tuia - Southern Encounters
Monday 9 September, 10 a.m. – Saturday 9 November 2019

Curated by Hocken Librarian Sharon Dell.

When James Cook sailed down the Otago coast in 1770 he observed what he thought to be a barren uninhabited land. This exhibition weaves together taonga, images, maps, and knowledge handed down from ancestors to tell the story of how fifty generations had been living in southern New Zealand when the first explorers from another world visited these shores.

The names of lakes and rivers, mountains, settlements and foodgathering sites remind us that long before Cook claimed Te Waipounamu for Great Britain, this land was the dearest possession of another people.