A trust fund set up to provide Māori with the skills to look after taonga has widened its scope due to a growing interest in Te Māori Exhibition and taonga.
Piri Sciascia Photo: Supplied
The trust's creation was inspired by Te Māori Exhibition which toured the US in the 1980s.
Today is the anniversary of the opening of Te Māori in New York.
Te Māori Manaaki Taonga Trust chair Piri Sciascia said it had previously given funding to artists, curators and educators to acquire the skills needed to care for and display Māori treasures.
But Mr Sciascia said the trust had now shifted its focus and was changing its deed at an event at Te Papa Tongarewa so it is allowed to fund other forms of taonga conservation and learning.
He said there were now four pou that gave more people the opportunity to learn about Māori taonga and its preservation.
"One is the legacy of Te Māori, one is the people still, so we can still train people, but we can do two other things, one is the knowledge base, which has been quite interesting, with particularly young people wanting to research and know about Te Māori.
"And then also about taonga because there are new taonga that need to be preserved and made available for exhibitions instead of disappearing in rich collections and disappearing overseas, for example."
The trust's funding was originally derived from the profits of Te Māori Exhibition, which toured the US from 1984-1987, and Te Hokinga Mai's tour of Aotearoa.
Mr Sciascia said the trust has grown from its original funding base of $200,000, 30 years ago, to about $1.5 million today. The trust does not receive any annual funding from the government.
Mr Sciascia said the main kaupapa for the last 30 years has been about getting Māori into the museums via scholarships, with some outstanding successes for those wanting to pursue museum studies.
However, he said, from today the purpose of the trust would change, allowing it to spend money on supporting other forms of taonga preservation such as partnerships, funding for memoirs and research.
"We've found there's new research interests for Māori scholars in Māori art, musicology.
"We can now support other people's efforts to collect oral histories - because we're getting down to some of the last remaining elders. All the old, old people have just all about gone."
Mr Sciascia said the trust now had the opportunity, by broadening its purpose, to honour those living taonga.
