#2 - The Forgotten Taonga
from The Taonga Files
A single line in an 1865 museum ledger. A registration number from the wrong century. A photograph altered to hide everything but a single carving. This episode dives into the forensic world of provenance research as Amber traces the journey of a tauihu that disappeared inside the museum’s collection. With help from the next generation of museum researchers, and a lot of patient detective work, she uncovers how this taonga — the first ever recorded in the Colonial Museum — slipped into silence, and how it finally found its way back into the light. Glossary Atua - ancestor with continuing influence, god, supernatural being, deity Huaki - washboard of a war canoe Kōrero - speech, narrative, story, news account, discussion, conversation. Manaia - stylised figure used in carving Tauihu - prow or figurehead of a Māori war canoe Taonga Māori - Māori cultural treasures Takarangi - double spiral pattern in Māori carving, said to symbolise the revolving heavens. Te Ao Māori - the Māori world Waka - canoe
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