Zui: Te Maori | A Pākehā Perspective

At daybreak on 10 September 1984, karanga heralded the opening of the Te Maori exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This exhibition marked a historic moment in the cultural recognition of Māori art, as it was the first time that a collection of taonga Māori were exhibited internationally as art rather than ethnographic objects. The exhibition toured across the United States and later returned to New Zealand, celebrating the artistry and spiritual significance of taonga. Te Maori elevated the global appreciation of Māori culture, fuelled a cultural renaissance and created a cultural shift that eventually led to the creation of Te Papa Tongarewa.

In this zui-series, National Services Te Paerangi will share the kōrero of kaimahi who worked in and with museums throughout the past 40 years. They will reflect on the influence that this watershed exhibition has had on their lives and the way we engage with taonga. 

Linda Tyler

Linda Tyler has taught art history at Canterbury, Victoria, Waikato and Auckland universities, and design history at Unitec and Otago Polytechnic, and been an art curator at Waikato Museum, the Hocken Library and Gus Fisher Gallery. She wrote her MA thesis on the Austrian architect Ernst Plischke and her PhD on the Colonial Museum botanist and draughtsman John Buchanan. Since 2018 she has been convenor of the Museums and Cultural Heritage programme at the University of Auckland.

Conal McCarthy

Professor Conal McCarthy is Director of the Museum & Heritage Studies programme, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University. He has published widely on museum history, theory and practice and works as a co-general editor of the Berghahn journal Museum Worlds: Advances in Research. He is an advisor on various projects exploring museums, communities, indigenous heritage and climate change. Among his current research projects is an international comparative analysis of indigenous museologies and a special issue of a journal on decolonising museums and archives. His next books are a co-edited handbook on intercultural heritage in NZ for Palgrave and a study of the transformation of museum anthropology in the 1920-30s. Conal is the Asia-Pacific rep on ICOM IMREC based at Shanghai Humanities University and has worked with professionals in GLAMs and heritage organisations throughout the region.

Jenny Harper

Until she retired in 2018, Jenny Harper was director of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū from 2006.  Before that, she formally established the Art History programme at Victoria University of Wellington and the Adam Art Gallery on the campus. In earlier years, Jenny held curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Australia (short-term), the Queensland Art Gallery and the former National Art Gallery. After a short period of helping to plan the new Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in 1989, she became the last director of the National Art Gallery in 1990. Jenny was also commissioner for New Zealand’s presentations at the Venice Biennale in 2009, 2011 and in 2013. Harking back to her first degree in Religious Studies and her interest in religious art and architecture, she led a tour to India in early 2019 and now works on various art-related projects which interest her.

Ken Gorbey

Ken began his career as an archaeology student in Auckland and worked his way up through the museum world to serve as the Director of the Waikato Museum from 1970 to 1983. From 1985 to 1999, Ken played a pivotal role in establishing Te Papa Tongarewa, holding various positions and ultimately becoming the Director of Museum Projects, responsible for the visitor experience. In 1999, Ken was headhunted by the former United States Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal to serve as Project Director and Deputy President of the Jewish Museum Berlin. His work there until 2002 was instrumental in salvaging the project and transforming it into one of Germany's premier cultural institutions. Throughout his career, Ken has been involved in a wide variety of cultural and tourism projects, including performing arts centers, urban renewal initiatives, historic sites and precincts, an arboretum, and cultural tourism attractions. He has assisted in creating new galleries and museums and re-engineering existing ones. These projects range from small community-based endeavors to large multi-million dollar developments across various countries, including Russia, Germany, Australia, the United States, Mexico, and New Zealand. Notably, he has worked on several projects with iwi and hapū. His memoir, Te Papa to Berlin, published by Otago University Press in 2020, chronicles his journey in the world of museums and cultural heritage.

Register here: Meeting Registration - Zoom

A recording of this event will be available at National Services Te Paerangi – YouTube after the event.