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Passionate preservers of the past are marking a century of steadfast support with a new exhibition.
The Friends of Tūhura Otago Museum has launched “Friends Forever” in the Level 2 atrium to mark its 100th anniversary.
The free display runs until April next year and showcases items defining the organisation’s funding and volunteer legacy.
Friends of Tūhura Otago Museum president emeritus Prof Nancy Longnecker said the body was formed following the 1926 New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition.
“We might even be the first friends association of museums in New Zealand.”
Founders Henry Devenish (H.D.) Skinner and Willi Fels aimed to build a community of financial supporters, Prof Longnecker said.
“There was a lot of money in Dunedin at the time and people had very big intentions … to build up the cultural institutions of the city,” she said.
“We don’t realise how special, how lucky we are in Dunedin.
“Dunedin was rich at the right time … we have this legacy of taonga that are just amazing.”
Early items bought by the friends included British armaments that had been displayed at the international exhibition.
Early benefactor Willi Fels alone gifted tens of thousands of items to the community.
“He had an amazing Roman coin collection, for example,” she said.
Highlighting this variety, the new exhibition features a diverse selection of pieces bought over the past century, including a sacrificial axe, a Malaysian shadow puppet and a Chinese surcoat.
Since then, a vast array of artefacts has been added to the museum’s collection thanks to the efforts of the organisation.
A century ago, one of the first donations was £100, which in today’s money is the equivalent of about $18,000.
In honour of this, it is donating a similar amount this year.
But as a sign of how the association’s contributions have evolved, that money will be used to fund a kaitiaki internship.
A planned redevelopment of the Tāngata Whenua Gallery is anticipated to include the repatriation of carvings to Ngāti Kahungunu, the primary iwi of Te Matau-a-Māui, the Hawke’s Bay region.
The intern will work with Tūhura Otago Museum Māori curators to de-install the carvings and prepare them for safe return to Hawke's Bay.
From a high point of more than 500 members in the 1970s, the society’s membership dropped to about 100 by 2013, but in recent years has rebuilt to more than 200 people.
The organisation was aiming to double its membership by the end of the anniversary year, Prof Longnecker said.
“We are a very diverse group of people with a common purpose, which is to support the museum,” she said.
As well as making financial contributions, members have volunteered thousands of hours in an archives project, reading, scanning and summarising boxes of early museum correspondence.
Memberships are available across several categories, including adult, student and family.
Email friends@tuhura.nz for information.
