Okains Bay Museum is a museum in Banks Peninsula, New Zealand.
Okains Bay Museum is a museum in Banks Peninsula, New Zealand.
As a child in the 1940s, Okains Bay resident Murray Thacker developed an interest in collecting historical objects and Māori history; he also learnt to speak Māori. [1] [2] He later repatriated Māori taonga from collections outside New Zealand, purchasing significant pieces from London-based collector Kenneth Athol Webster. Webster gifted Thacker some items, including a kāhu-kiwi with rare albino kiwi feathers from Te Tai Poutini. [2] [3]
Thacker set up a private museum at his home and in 1962 it was stated that about 2000 people visited each year. [4] In 1964 Thacker bought a collection of 1000 Māori pieces from a private museum in Dargaville. [5]
In 1968 he bought the former Okains Bay dairy factory, intending to create a public museum in which to house the taonga Māori collection alongside displays of early European artefacts. In 1973 Thacker was granted a permit to build a museum behind the dairy factory. [6] In subsequent years additional buildings were added to the site including some originally belonging to early European settlers as well as a marae.
The Okains Bay Māori and Colonial Museum opened as a public museum controlled by a trust on Waitangi Day in 1977. [1] [7] The trust includes members from Thacker's family, Ngai Tahu as the tangata whenua, and people from the local community. [8]
Thacker was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in 1977 for his service to the community. [9]
Thacker added the 'Jensen House', the remains of a pioneer dwelling from the Kaituna Valley, to his collection in 1961. Restoration of the house was completed in 1969. [10]
The museum collection includes a number of historic canoes salvaged from around New Zealand. One of them, named 'Kaukaka', was bought by Thacker in 1968, shipped by rail from Waitotara near Wanganui to Okains Bay, and restored over a five-year period by carver John Rua. The canoe is of totara, 20 metres long, and thought to date from the 1870s. For many years Thacker would launch it on the river on Waitangi Day so that people could see the canoe in action. [11]
In 2016, Dougal Austin and Matiu Baker from Te Papa Tongarewa assessed the taonga Māori at Okains Bay Museum and found them to be nationally significant. [12] After facing financial difficulties post-Covid, the staffing was restructured and a new team was put in place. [13] In 2023 the museum reported ongoing difficulties with funding maintenance. [14]
Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori iwi (tribe) of the South Island. Its takiwā is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti, Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Point in the north to Stewart Island / Rakiura in the south. The takiwā comprises 18 rūnanga corresponding to traditional settlements. According to the 2018 census an estimated 74,082 people affiliated with the Kāi Tahu iwi.
Tūhawaiki — often known as Hone Tūhawaiki, John Tūhawaiki or Jack Tūhawaiki, or by his nickname of "Bloody Jack" — became a paramount chief of the Ngāi Tahu Māori iwi in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand, and was based predominantly on Ruapuke Island. He gained his nickname from early interactions with Foveaux Strait whalers on account of his red coats bought off soldiers in Australia that he and his whailing crew wore.
Waitaha, an early Māori iwi, inhabited the South Island of New Zealand. They were largely absorbed via marriage and conquest – first by the Ngāti Māmoe and then by Ngāi Tahu – from the 16th century onward. Today those of Waitaha descent are represented by the Ngāi Tahu iwi. Like Ngāi Tahu today, Waitaha was itself a collection of various ancient iwi. Kāti Rākai was said to be one of Waitaha's hapū.
Claims and settlements under the Treaty of Waitangi have been a significant feature of New Zealand politics since the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal that was established by that act to hear claims. Successive governments have increasingly provided formal legal and political opportunity for Māori to seek redress for what are seen as breaches by the Crown of guarantees set out in the Treaty of Waitangi. While it has resulted in putting to rest a number of significant longstanding grievances, the process has been subject to criticisms including those who believe that the redress is insufficient to compensate for Māori losses. The settlements are typically seen as part of a broader Māori Renaissance.
Kurī is the Māori name for an extinct New Zealand dog. It was introduced to New Zealand by the Polynesian ancestors of the Māori during their migration from East Polynesia in the 13th century AD. According to Māori tradition, the demigod Māui transformed his brother-in-law Irawaru into the first dog.
Uruaokapuarangi was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled the South Island according to Māori tradition.
Sir Mark Wiremu Solomon is a New Zealand Māori leader from the Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kurī (Kaikōura) iwi. He served as kaiwhakahaere (chairperson) of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, the tribal council of Ngāi Tahu, for approximately 18 years, from 1998 until December 2016. His departure as tribal chair followed his decision in April 2016 not to seek re-election as the tribal representative for Kaikoura. Solomon continues to act in various directorship roles including as chair of the Canterbury District Health Board.
Okains Bay is a settlement, beach and bay on the Banks Peninsula in the South Island of New Zealand.
Fiona Dorothy Pardington is a New Zealand artist, her principal medium being photography.
Arapata Tamati Hakiwai is a New Zealand museum curator of Māori collections. He is a principal investigator with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, a Māori research centre at University of Auckland.
Areta Rachael Wilkinson is a New Zealand jeweller.
Rachael Rakena is a New Zealand artist.
Rākaihautū was the captain of the Uruaokapuarangi canoe and a Polynesian ancestor of various iwi, most famously of Waitaha and other southern groups, though he is also known in the traditions of Taitokerau, and in those of Rarotonga.
Tracey Tawhiao is a New Zealand Maori artist. Her ancestry can be traced to Ngai te Rangi, Whakatohea, Tuwharetoa.
Pounamu is a term for several types of hard and durable stone found in the South Island of New Zealand. They are highly valued in New Zealand, and carvings made from pounamu play an important role in Māori culture.
Louise Magdalene Teowaina Wallscott was a Māori activist, teacher and weaver.
Charles Eldon Fayne Robinson is a New Zealand Māori artist specialising in carving. Robinson has contributed to the carving of buildings on many marae in New Zealand as well as exhibiting his art in galleries and museums.
Browning Pass / Nōti Raureka is a mountain pass across the Southern Alps, on the South Island of New Zealand. The pass reaches an elevation of 1,411 metres (4,629 ft) above sea level, connecting the upper reaches of the Wilberforce River with the West Coast.
Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri is a Māori iwi (tribe) of New Zealand, who arrived on the Kurahaupō waka. In the 1600s the iwi settled northwestern South Island, becoming a major power in the region until the 1800s. In 1642, members of Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri made the first known contact between Europeans and Māori, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman visited Golden Bay / Mohua.
The Greenstone River / Hokonui, also known as the Big Hohonu River, is a river on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It rises in the Hohonu Range, an outlying range of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, roughly 30 kilometres (19 mi) southeast of Greymouth. The river flows northwest for its entire length, eventually joining the same river valley as the larger Taramakau River near the town of Kumara. From here, the two rivers flow roughly parallel for around 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) before the Greenstone / Hokonui joins the Taramakau just shy of the latter's mouth in the Tasman Sea. The area surrounding the river was historically home to gold mining operations, following the discovery of payable amounts of gold in 1864. The township of Greenstone was established on the river in the wake of this discovery, with other industries including a sawmill soon being established.