'Our stories makes us who we are': Pacific voices reshape an Otago Museum gallery

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Samoan artist Ana Teofilo designed a carpet featuring motifs from different cultures found throughout the collection.

Photo: Supplied

Tūhura Otago Museum says its newly redeveloped Pacific Cultures gallery was redesigned with direct input from Pasifika communities.

'Tāngata Moana: Peoples of the Ocean' gallery reopened after a 16-month transformation.

The gallery's redevelopment comes as museums around the world face growing calls to work more closely with indigenous communities when dealing with their artefacts and histories.

It was important to the gallery's collection technician Jonika Edgecombe to invite Pasifika communities into their storage spaces, allowing them to decide how they wanted to be represented in the gallery's exhibits.

Edgecombe believes Tāngata Moana can be an example of how Pacific collections should be handled.

"Nothing for us without us, that's the saying aye 100 percent. There's so much to gain and nothing to lose by uplifting the voices of the people whose treasures you're showcasing, and you get a much more authentic representation."

'Tāngata Moana: Peoples of the Ocean' was redesigned with direct input from Pasifika communities.

Photo: Supplied

Visitors entering the gallery are greeted by a vibrant new carpet designed by Samoan artist Ana Teofilo, featuring motifs from different cultures found throughout the collection.

The redesigned space also includes modern digital information labels, allowing for updates to be easily added.

But for Edgecombe, the highlight of the new layout is the dedicated sections representing individual Pacific nations.

"It happens a lot to the Pacific, it gets homogenised, it gets grouped into one lump. But every culture and every nation that we've tried to represent is also its own in its own right.

"Yes, we're linked, but we have unique identities as well. I think it was really important to get that celebration of every individual culture without disregarding the connections between," she said.

The galleries Pasifika engagement manager Leota Meredith said this is what the community wanted.

Meredith said the consultation process helped fill gaps in the museum's understanding of artefacts that had entered their collection long ago, often with very little information included.

"Our people reached out home when they were unsure. We were very blessed that many of our Pacific communities, they reached out home, they went home, and they helped us with that information. That to me is something special."

She said this interactive community outreach is how other museums should approach researching Pacific cultures.

Leota Meredith and Jonika Edgecombe.

Photo: Supplied

For New Zealand born Pasifika people, Edgecombe hopes Tāngata Moana can foster connections to their cultural heritage.

As a Samoan who grew up in New Zealand with little knowledge of her own pacific identity, she said it was all the more important to create an inviting space that encourages reconnection.

"Spaces like museums offer a gateway, a place to start. I think it can be really special and the community has selected things that can represent them, so you're getting a more authentic gateway to begin with."

"I think it's an in for people like me who grew up not knowing a huge amount and want that reconnection."

Meredith pointed out that this hunger for connection extends beyond the one generation.

She said there are parents and grandparents who migrated to New Zealand who may have lost touch with home.

"Let's encourage our youth, and also our parents, and remember, we're an intergenerational communal peoples... So the beautiful balance is that you have the lens of those who want to know, and then you've got those of us who are needing to be reminded."

She believes Tāngata Moana can help all ages connect with who they are as Pasifika people.

"I think that is part of the overall journey of self identity, of cultural identity. So places like museums hold the tangible treasures or the stories that come with it.

"Our stories makes us who we are in connection with this space and of the treasures that are inspired and housed here."

With indigenous communities involved every step of the way, museum staff hope Otago's Tāngata Moana will continue to evolve as one of New Zealand's most authentic galleries of Pacific cultures.