Te Maori

Te Maori (sometimes Te Māori in modern sources) was a watershed exhibition of Māori art (taonga^{[Note 1]}) that toured the United States from 1984 to 1986, and New Zealand from 1986 to 1987 as Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai ("the return home"). It was the first time Māori art was shown internationally as art instead of ethnographic collections, and the involvement of iwi impacted museum practice in New Zealand and globally. It is considered a milestone in the Māori Renaissance.

From the time contact was first made between Māori and Europeans, Māori social and cultural objects were collected for inclusion in private collections and museums, as were human remains.

These objects were collected, catalogued and displayed ethnographically, treating Māori as a part of natural history rather than creators of culture that might be exhibited in an artistic context.^[1]

The idea of a major exhibition of Māori artworks that would tour the United States was first raised in 1973 by Douglas Newton, Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A Friede from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Paul Cotton, the New Zealand Consul General in New York.^[2]: 15 Though the idea was well-received, including by New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk, delays were caused by Kirk's passing and the lack of funding.

In 1979 Douglas Newton and Wilder Green of the American Federation of Arts raised the idea again, and in 1981 the New Zealand Cabinet approved the exhibition in principle.^[2]: 15

The exhibition was supported by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council with funding from Mobil Oil.

Hirini Moko Mead was co-curator of the exhibition.^[3]

Unlike previous exhibitions of Māori work, iwi had to give permission for the artworks to be included, highlighting the difference between museum ownership and authority. This was seen as an outcome of political and cultural advocacy by Māori since the 1960s.^{[4][1]: 138}

During the planning process, the objects displayed were called 'taonga' by the involved institutions, acknowledging more meaning than the term 'artwork'.^{[4][1]: 143-145}

Te Maori included 174 taonga, most being whakairo (carved wood) or carved pounamu (greenstone). Most came from the collections of 12 New Zealand institutions, 51 loaned by Auckland Institute and Museum,^[5][6] 38 from the National Museum.^[7] One came from the collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

The change from ethnographic treatment of the works was reflected in how they were displayed, giving them individual focus through space and lighting more like that used in art galleries.

The National Museum trialled this method of display in 1983, exhibiting the taonga from their collections that would be shown in Te Maori at the Academy of Fine Arts.^[1]: 145

Part of the exhibition was carefully held practices and values guided by Māori tikanga. This included dawn ceremonies, traditional karakia, speeches in the Māori language, waiata and kapa haka. Mead described the effect at the prestigious institution of the Met: "It did much to make tikanga Māori more acceptable not only to the population at large of Aotearoa but, more importantly, among our own people."^[8]

Accompanying the taonga with these practices was described as 'the complete package' by Piri Sciascia, making it clear that the objects were part of a living culture.^[1]: 139

Groups of Māori from several iwi travelled with the exhibition to supervise installation and care of the taonga, perform ceremonies, and participate in events.^[9]

Te Maori opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York on 10 September 1984 and was also presented at Saint Louis Art Museum (February–May 1985), the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco (July–September 1985), and the Field Museum in Chicago (March–June 1986).

Te Maori continued once the taonga returned to New Zealand in August 1986 as Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai ("The return home"). Starting at the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington, it travelled to Otago Museum in Dunedin, Robert McDougall Art Gallery in Christchurch, finishing at the Auckland City Art Gallery.^[10][11]

Te Hokinga Mai closed on 10 September 1987, three years to the day after opening at the Met.

Te Maori was very well received, both at home and abroad. The New Zealand institutions saw 'unprecedented' visitor numbers.^[12]

When the Te Maori cultural group performed at the American Museum of Natural History there was no doubt something had happened. The audience was already won over even before the performance began. What they wanted was to touch Maori culture and Maori people to learn more and more and more. They were reaching out to us in a way that is difficult to describe.^[13]

The exhibition was criticised for what it excluded, including toi raranga (fibre art / weaving, mostly created by women, as opposed to carving, mostly done by men), and contemporary Māori art.^{[4][1]: 141}

Te Maori raised the profile of Māori culture in New Zealand significantly. The international response to the exhibition influenced New Zealand media to pay attention to Māori art,^[11] and Māori used the increased respect afforded to their culture to push for further changes.^[1]: 146

Museum practice changed to involve Māori in the interpretation and display of their cultural heritage. Museums began embedding a bicultural approach to 'consultation, planning, presentation' and audience engagement with taonga.^[12]

This model has become an international standard of practice among museums that hold Māori and Pacific works,^[14] and has influenced institutions with holdings from other Indigenous communities.

More Māori started working in museums, and training in specialisations like conservation and curation.^[15] Funding for this training with the profits of the exhibition was recommended by the Te Maori management committee.^[16]

It also influenced the new building of the national museum of New Zealand Te Papa.^[1][17][9]

Major exhibitions influenced by Te Maori include:

• Taonga Maori (1989-1990)
• Treasures and Landmarks (1990)
• Te Waka Toi: contemporary Māori art from New Zealand (1992-1993)

• Gathercole, Peter (2002). "'Te Maori' in the Longer View". In Herle, Anita; Stanley, Nick; Stevenson, Karen; Welsch, Robert L. (eds.). Pacific Art: Persistence, Change, and Meaning. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. pp. 271–279. ISBN 0-8248-2556-X.
• Mead, Sidney Moko, ed. (1984). Te Maori: Maori Art from New Zealand Collections. New York: Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-1344-5.
• Nuku, Maia (2021). "'Te Maori': New Precedents for Indigenous Art at The Met". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 56: 32–50. doi:10.1086/718034. S2CID 245010880.

• Te Māori at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Te Māori and its impact at Te Ara