This is the Māori Hall at the newly opened Dominion Museum in Wellington, around 1936. The Māori Hall was the centrepiece of the new museum, with the open space and natural light creating the feeling of a shrine of national treasures. Among the exhibits were four waka (canoes), two pātaka (storehouses) and the meeting house Te Hau-ki-Tūranga. The display emphasised the idea of Māori as part of New Zealand's national story, but largely as a prelude to the arrival of Pākehā colonisers.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand Railways Collection (PAColl-5167)
Reference:
1/1-003855-G
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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