Projects await museum’s new Maori curator

Otago Museum’s Maori curator Gerard O’Regan points to rock art in a cliff in the central North...
Otago Museum’s Maori curator Gerard O’Regan points to rock art in a cliff in the central North Island in 2017, watched by digital archaeologist Andrea Jalandoni, of Griffith University, Queensland. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
One of the first jobs of Otago Museum’s new Maori curator will be redeveloping the museum’s Maori Tangata Whenua Gallery.

Touring exhibitions are also on the radar.

The Maori Tangata Whenua Gallery, established in the late 1980s, was the first priority, Gerard O’Regan (53) said this week, from Auckland, where he is continuing Maori rock art-related fieldwork and research at Auckland University as part of his work as a research fellow at the James Henare Maori Research Centre.

The specialist in cultural management, including of wahi tupuna (ancestral places), taonga (treasures) Maori collections, and New Zealand’s rock art heritage, has taken the Otago Museum role on part-time.

"It’s going to be a completely new exhibition, and not a revamp of the existing exhibition.

"Not to say that some of the taoka [treasures] in the gallery might not be still there.

"It will be a very different exhibition.

The timing would depend on several factors, including the eventual outcome of the museum’s master plan process, and the museum’s overall post-coronavirus finances.

Planning for the exhibition was expected to be "well advanced" by 2022, he said.

The redeveloped gallery would allow for "more nimble" use of the space, including to respond to community changes.

Electronic elements were likely to become part of the gallery changes.

Dr O’Regan is also working on a proposed joint initiative by Canterbury Museum and the Otago Museum to develop a touring exhibition devoted to Maori rock art.

It was hoped the exhibition could be staged in the Otago Museum’s Special Exhibitions gallery in 2022, when the Tangata Whenua Gallery was expected to be closed for the redevelopment.

As well as becoming Maori curator, Dr O’Regan has also joined the museum executive team in a new, wider pouhere kaupapa Maori cultural advisory role.

This would ensure that "consideration of Maori issues" was incorporated into the museum’s overall operations, he said.

Dr O’Regan will move to Dunedin later this year.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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