^ Family Treasures 2009

An exhibition by the young people of Whanganui.

Family Treasures is a community project involving Year 7 and 8 students, their families, their schools and the Museum which we run every second year. The idea came originally from the Canadian Museum of Civilisation and has become a regular feature of museum exhibition programmes all over the world.

Throughout 2009 students from participating schools will be planning, researching and writing about their family treasures for the project which culminates in the Family Treasures He Māpihi Maurea exhibition at the Museum in October. At the beginning of the project students talk to their families about what a treasure is to them. They do the research, and write it up. Each class makes up a book of the results and sends the book to the Museum. The staff look through the books and make a selection of objects. The exhibition is created, based on the objects and all the class books.

The selected objects are interesting in themselves but it is the people associated with them and their stories that are the real stars of the show, so their pictures and stories and words are given a prominent place too.

^ Land - Mana Whenua Mana Tangata

is an exhibition that describes the development of the wider Whanganui region, community and city during the 19th century through experiences of tangata whenua and European settlers, with particular reference to land, spirituality, conflict and alliance. Land – mana whenua, mana tangata illustrates some of the physical, spiritual, economic and social consequences of European contact and settlement on Māori in Whanganui in the 19th century – Christianity, Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi, 1848 Whanganui land sale, and the New Zealand wars of the 1840s and 1860s. The exhibition also describes settler experiences and the later 19th century boom of city expansion, river tourism and rural development.

^ Whanganui

“He pūkenga wai, he nohoanga tāngata, he nohoanga tāngata, he putanga kōrero.” Where there is a body of water, people settle, and where people settle, legends unfold.

Ever wondered how long people have been living here or where they came from?  What’s so special about Whanganui anyway?  A new exhibition at the Museum introduces you to a few of the things that make our place a great place to live or visit.  Meet some outstanding people from here, discover some icons from the Museum collection and find out about some extraordinary events that helped shape the land and the way we live.

^ Also On View

Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāparangi, The Māori Court
Features the war canoe Te Mata o Hoturoa and an internationally renowned collection of taonga Māori.

Ngā Manu: Birds of New Zealand
Features many endangered and extinct New Zealand birds such as the kiwi, moa and huia.

The Street - Wanganui 1900-1920
Re-creates the impression of early 20th century Wanganui businesses from this prosperous time.

Te Pataka Whakaahua - The Lindauer Gallery
Portraits of prominent Māori personalities from the 19th century by renowned artist Gottfried Lindauer.

The Bug Room
Butterflies and creepy crawlies from around Whanganui and beyond.

School Days
Experience a classroom as it might have looked in the early part of the 20th century.

Gotta Go
A light-hearted look at transport and communication.