Collections

Our Collecting Policy includes the following points:

• The museum will pursue a policy of active collecting through gift, bequest or purchase.
  
  
• Emphasis will be given to items which originate from and have a strong asssociation with the Tairawhiti region.
  
  
• A specialist area requiring further development will be our contemporary Maori art collection.
  

Some of the museum's collections include:

• Social history objects.
  
  
• Maori treasures (taonga Maori).
  
  
• Paper-based collections such as community archives, cards & postcards, maps, plans, theatrical programmes, research resources in our Research Centre.
  
  
• Fine Arts.
  
  
• Photography.
  
  
• Surfboards.
  
  
• Star of Canada wreck collection.
  
  
• Natural History.
  
  
• Oral history archive.
  
  
• Textiles