The Taonga Files

This is not your typical taonga Māori. Its also not just an old ledger but if you take a closer look it can reveal more. We’ll take you into the room with this taonga what it was like and what you might find. Not dissimilar to an address book from 1878 we’ll share with you its purpose, importance and its taonga-like characteristics. We talk about the Te Wananga newspaper and its subscribers who were recorded in this ledger. Te reo Māori is central to the mode of communication at the time in sharing critical news uniting iwi Māori over land matters but most of all, a defence to overturn fraudulent sales of Māori land.
A snapshot in time, a window to the lives of our tipuna, a source of empowerment and identity. Listen in on this episode to find out more about the Te Wananga ledger.

Links
Book: Lives of Colonial Objects 2015
Definition from of taonga from He Pātaka Kupu dictionary
Te Wānanga Ledger at MTG
Repudiation Movement
Kotahitanga Movement

Glossary
Tipuna Māori - Māori ancestors
Motu - country, island
Reo - language
Tairāwhiti rohe - East Coast region
Iwi, hapū - tribe, subtribe
Mana - control, power, authority
Rangatira - chief, leader
Uri whakatipu - descendants
Whenua ūkaipō - land of origin, home land
Whenua - land, placenta
Mana whenua - authority over land
Kōrero - discussion
Mere - hand held short club weapon often greenstone
Taiaha - long wooden weapon
Kākahu - cloak, clothing

Museum records can feel like a locked world — full of jargon, hidden systems, and unanswered questions. In this episode of The Taonga Files, Amber and Migoto break down what museum records actually are, what they can reveal, and how early‑career and community researchers can access them with confidence. A practical, empowering guide to navigating the archives with clarity, kaupapa, and a touch of detective energy.

Links
Wellcome Collection Archives
Maraenui Banners, Hikoi mo te Tiriti Blog

Glossary
Kaumātua - elderly man or woman
Kaupapa - topic, subject, theme, agenda
Kōrero - talk, discussion
Kuia - female elder, grandmother
Hōhā - nuisance, bother, bore, hassle, pain in the neck.
Tupuna/Tūpuna - ancestor/ancestors

Just weeks after the Colonial Museum opened in 1865, someone slipped through the darkness and cut their way inside. A “short elderly man” and “experienced burglar”, vanished into the night with gold, precious stones, and a cache of taonga Māori.
In this episode, we retrace the break‑in, the hunt for culprit, and the strange trail of clues that led to the recovery of some taonga… while others disappeared into the city’s shadows. More than 160 years later, researchers are still following the threads, asking what was taken, what survived, and what stories these taonga continue to whisper.
Links
Find the blog here
Reward Poster

Glossary
Tanga Māori - Māori cultural treasures
Hoa - friend
Tātou - we, us, you (two or more)
Hei Tiki - greenstone neck pendant depicting human image.
Pounamu - greenstone, nephrite, jade.
Toki Poutangata - greenstone adze - used as a weapon by a chief and is a symbol of chieftainship.
Toki - adze
Ka kite ano - see you again/next time

In this brief we explore the valuable resource of Papers Past, and why this is a must for our research kete.

Papers Past
Niupepa Māori
Trove
Library of Congress
British Newspaper Archive

Glossary
Aotearoa: New Zealand
Niupepa Māori: Māori Newspapers
Te reo Māori: The Māori language
Tupuna: Ancestor
Waiata: Song
Koroua/Koro; Elderly man, grandfather
Whakapapa: Genealogy
Whanaunga: Relative

A single line in an 1865 museum ledger.
A registration number from the wrong century.
A photograph altered to hide everything but a single carving.
This episode dives into the forensic world of provenance research as Amber traces the journey of a tauihu that disappeared inside the museum’s collection. With help from the next generation of museum researchers, and a lot of patient detective work, she uncovers how this taonga — the first ever recorded in the Colonial Museum — slipped into silence, and how it finally found its way back into the light.

Glossary
Atua - ancestor with continuing influence, god, supernatural being, deity
Huaki - washboard of a war canoe
Kōrero - speech, narrative, story, news account, discussion, conversation.
Manaia - stylised figure used in carving
Tauihu - prow or figurehead of a Māori war canoe
Taonga Māori - Māori cultural treasures
Takarangi - double spiral pattern in Māori carving, said to symbolise the revolving heavens.
Te Ao Māori - the Māori world
Waka - canoe