
The Taonga Māori Collection is comprised of both audio and visual material that originate in Aotearoa covering a range of genres, events and subjects including records of karanga, whaikōrero, iwi and hapū histories, pōwhiri, marae and kapa haka, Waitangi Day events (dating from 1913), weaving demonstrations, tukutuku, whakairo and many more.
Hero image: The cast from 'Te Kooti Trail'.

'The Spirits and Times will Teach', Tangata Whenua - Mai i te maui ki te katau: Tuaiwa Hautai Eva Rickard (Tainui Āwhiro), rātou ko Herepō Rongo (Tainui Āwhiro), ko Michael King. (Pacific Films, 1974)
Origins
The Taonga Māori Collection began in the early 1980s, when the then Film Archive acquired a collection of unedited images filmed by James McDonald in the 1920s for the Dominion Museum.
McDonald travelled with Sir Apirana Ngata and Te Rangihīroa (Sir Peter Buck) to Gisborne, the East Coast, Rotorua, Ruatāhuna and the Whanganui River. He recorded images of whānau, hapū and iwi 30 years before urbanisation brought significant changes to the Māori world.
The Taonga Māori Collection consists of many different kaupapa including the following:
- Broadcasting
- Education
- Government
- History
- Information Technology
- Law
- Art
- Medical
- Oral interpretation/traditions
- Treaty
- Science
- Sports
- Marketing

Still from Te Rua - this image is housed in Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision's Documentation Collection, as part of the Jonathan Dennis Collection. (Barry Barclay, 1991)
Explore audiovisual material from the Taonga Māori Collection:





26 August 2022

23 June 2022

5 February 2015
