At the AGM earlier this year, a small contingent of scientists from Te Papa provided a short presentation about fossils found in our Ngāti Mutunga rohe. With them, they had a collection of fossils to share with whānau and create awareness around this exciting kaupapa. As a follow-on from this initial meeting, our taiao team made a trip to Wellington to visit the fossil archives held by Te Papa. It was an overwhelming experience for us all and we thoroughly enjoyed it, though one day proved to be nowhere near enough time to explore everything we wanted to. Our hosts were incredibly knowledgeable, informative and made us all feel very welcome. We look forward to continuing and strengthening this relationship and hopefully more trips to Wellington to understand more about our ancient taonga.
While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit the Mātauranga Māori collection with Chrissy and Haley from Te Papa. Such a powerful experience to be surrounded by beautiful Taonga Māori from all over Aotearoa including many pieces from our very own tūpuna.
