To the untrained eye, two men sorting through a pile of stones and stone shards, may not seem that important.
But here, at the Owaka Museum, a collection of stones, bones, and traditional tools holds a wealth of information.
"It's a research collection - a resource for the future," Russell Beck said.
For more than 30 years, Owaka has been home to parts of the Lockerbie collection, named after Catlins-born Les Lockerbie, a man passionate about history and archaeology.
Mr Beck said the Lockerbie collection was important to the study of Maori movements and technologies.
"My interest is in sourcing the stone. Where did Maori get it from? There was a lot of movement shown through the rock left behind, they were a very mobile people."
His work on the project focused on documenting what the collection contained, sorting and describing the stone and stone shards.
"Most of the stone was sourced from the Pounawea area. One thing I've concluded from this collection, is that there has been a strong relationship with stone found at Pounawea with almost all the sites along the east side of the South Island."
Mr Beck said he had identified stone types from Nelson to Bluff in the stones collected from Pounawea and nearby sites.
He has keen interest in Maori stone tools, and even makes his own following the traditional methods used by early Maori, which he often uses to demonstrate how effective these tools were.
"The working knowledge of the early Maori is amazing. Good tools were very important for building anything. These tools were made with pride and became beautiful works of art, as well."
Owaka Museum director Kaaren Mitcalfe said the museum had a "very significant" collection of taonga, thanks to Les Lockerbie and his archaeological excavations.
She said the addition of Les Lockerbie archaeological material to the taonga collection had created a need to catalogue a substantial amount of newly acquired material.
The collection was stored in boxes and drawers and minimal cataloguing had been carried out.
Taonga is the Maori term for possessions, tools, treasure, or something that is prized.
The project is funded by Te Papa National Services Te Paerangi. Te Paerangi works in partnership with museums, galleries and iwi in New Zealand, offering a range of practical and strategic programmes aimed at strengthening the sector.
After discussions with local iwi representatives, the family of Les Lockerbie and experienced archaeologists, it was agreed to take the next step with cataloguing.
This will involve digitising, research and the compilation of a taonga database.
The project started in 2009. Mr Beck made his first visit to the museum in July that year and worked through 30 boxes making up about half a tonne of surface-collected stone and bone material.
The Lockerbie collection was the key taonga in the Owaka Museum.
Les Lockerbie was born at Maclennan, the Catlins, in 1911 and grew up in the area where he later collected taonga from 1924 to 1936. He was also the education officer at the Otago Museum from 1947 to 1976. Mr Lockerbie died 1996, and the main taonga collection was transferred to the museum in December 2007 by Mr Lockerbie's daughter Frances White and her husband Stephen.
A small amount of the material has been in the museum a long time, possibly given in the 1970s.
"He was very meticulous - he recorded everything," Mr Beck said.
Ms Mitcalfe said the remaining funding would not cover the entire project, so more money would be needed to finish it.
Last Wednesday, Mr Beck had completed sorting through boxes of material kept in the taonga storeroom. He began to catalogue the items on exhibition at the end of last week.
During Mr Beck's next visit in a few weeks, he will complete the stone tools on exhibition in the taonga display, and catalogue the three education cases the museum already has. The cases contain more items in a mini-diorama display, put together by Les Lockerbie to use when he was a museum educator.
One case exhibited at the museum is a cross-section of the Pounawea moa hunter site, with real examples of the tools that were excavated from there. The other two cases are kept in the storeroom.
As part of the project, Mr Beck will also catalogue the larger Les Lockerbie items and the other pieces donated to the museum from other sources.
Ms Mitcalfe said the remaining project funding would cover the steps outlined and the data entry to the museum's online catalogue.
Museum staff and volunteers were nearly halfway through transferring the worksheets generated by Mr Beck to the database on the New Zealand museums website.
Mr Beck has created 2267 worksheets, helped by his wife Ann, who accompanies him on each visit, volunteering her time to record the information on to worksheets.
Ms Mitcalfe said more funding would be sought to cover photographing each of the items and applying a museum standard number to each item.
So far they have only a temporary identification number. Each item has been "tagged and bagged" in secure clear enclosures with paper labels.
"Each stone can look quite similar so very important to keep each one with an individual number, to connect it to the right worksheet and therefore the right information.
Imaging and numbering is a time-consuming process and could suit a museum intern, so we hope to get assistance again with this from the Te Papa National Services Museum Studies Graduate Internship Programme and we will also seek further funding to catalogue the bone material in the collection."
The museum aimed to put together a new exhibition expanding from Mr Beck's expertise, as each stone had specific uses according to its qualities.
"So Russell could well find he returns to Owaka Museum, as his involvement so far has been an important component of the project progress."
