Museum exhibitions, development and planning director Clare Wilson said the museum was working with the Otaru Museum, in Dunedin's Japanese sister city, to develop a special exhibition which "celebrates our long-standing friendship in a contemporary way".
The show, which opens on August 14 and runs until November 7, will be an important, tangible outcome of the sister-city relationship, she said, and would help broaden cultural understanding.
The Otaru Museum had brought together a striking collection of contemporary Ainu material for the exhibition, organisers said.
The Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan, having a distinct language and customs, different from those of other Japanese.
Today, they live mainly on Hokkaido, the most northern of Japan's four main islands.
There are more than 40 items of Ainu work in the show, including 14 tapestries, 14 garments, three bags and 12 wooden items; most works featuring the traditionally bold Ainu motifs.
Among the garments are "attushi" items made with woven elm bark fibre fabric.
Ngai Tahu work comprises 40-plus items including jewellery, textiles, wood, ceramics, whalebone, paintings, photography and sculpture.
The Otago Museum worked with Suzanne Ellison, a Ngai Tahu manager, and the museum's Maori advisory committee to bring together a wide range of contemporary Ngai Tahu creative work.
The sister cities' 25th anniversary in 2005 was celebrated with an exhibition at the Otago Museum, titled "Kimono: A Japanese Story".
In 2002, the museum sent to the Otaru Museum an exhibition titled "An Abundant Land", focusing on Otago's environment and culture.
