The Otago Museum has been awarded $395,448 from the Lottery Environment and Heritage Fund to advance a digitisation project linked to Maori treasures in the museum collection.
This is believed to be the largest grant received by the museum from the Lottery Grants Board over the past 10 years.
The museum was "absolutely delighted'' to receive the substantial grant, museum marketing and development director Caroline Cook said.
The funding will enable museum collections and research staff to work with two new full-time project officers to manage, assess and digitise the Maori collection over the next three years.
The museum houses one of the largest collections of Ngai Tahu taonga (treasures) in the world, comprising more than 66,000 registered objects and a further 670 registered lots.
Museum organisers said the digitisation project included taking digital photographs of Maori artefacts from the collection, checking their condition, and updating catalogue information.
The project would enable the museum to provide a "rich online resource'', and would make culturally appropriate material "more accessible to the community'' through the museum's internet site.
Not all of the Maori objects in the collection would be digitised, a target of 20,000 treasures having been set for the three-year project.
Ms Cook acknowledged that some other digitisation work had already been begun on parts of the museum's collection.
Details were yet to be finalised, but some information from that earlier digitisation process could be made available via internet before the end of the year, she said.
Once the Maori collection project was firmly established, staff would share the knowledge and experience gained with the community, organisers said.
The project officers and team members would work directly with community groups to develop a better understanding of the condition of objects held in various marae and elsewhere.
Museum collections, research and education director Robert Morris said the funding would enable the museum to "truly focus'' on the important Maori collection.
After the museum's Maori project was completed, similar work would extend to other areas of the museum's collection.
