Nga Taonga Sound & Vision Launches New Online Exhibition

Ng? Taonga Sound & Vision has announced the launch of the second of four online exhibitions made up of material drawn from Ng? Taonga K?rero collection - the archive of RNZ's M?ori radio programmes. The collection contains recordings made between the 1930s and the 1980s and is a unique storehouse of k?rero, spanning many iwi and dialects.

For this second exhibition of early reo M?ori recordings, Te Hokinga Mai o Te Rua Tekau m? Waru, Ng? Taonga has chosen to highlight the welcome home given to members of the 28th M?ori Battalion when they arrived to a civic reception at Aotea Quay, Wellington on January 23, 1946. The Mobile Recording Unit of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service captured the speeches, waiata and haka from the day.

Following the welcome home Battalion members left for their final destinations on three trains heading north to Kaikohe, east to Gisborne and Napier and west to Whanganui and New Plymouth. The Mobile Recording Unit was on the north-bound train so the exhibition also includes the p?whiri at Ng?ruaw?hia and Kaikohe.

Ng? Taonga Pou ?rahi, Honiana Love says: "The launch date of the new exhibition, 23 January 2018, coincides with the arrival home of the Battalion 72 years ago. Te Hokinga Mai o Te Rua Tekau m? Waru will allow us to hear again the voices from what must have been an emotional day - the voices of K?ngi Tahiwi, ?h?ia Puketapu, Eruera Tirik?tene and many others.

The recordings of Ng? Taonga K?rero contain many outstanding examples of oratory and M?ori performing arts. Ng? Taonga is committed to sharing these taonga so that more New Zealanders can hear again the rich vocabulary captured in these recordings, and through that, appreciate and value te kounga o te reo," says Ms Love.

RNZ Head of News, Carol Hirschfeld says: "Te reo M?ori has been included in Radio New Zealand programming for more than 70 years and the current RNZ partnership with Ng? Taonga Sound & Vision allows New Zealanders to access a very rich and valuable vein of archival recordings. It's a partnership that also reflects RNZ's ongoing commitment to creating high-quality M?ori content, supporting te reo M?ori and fostering contemporary M?ori journalism."

Te Hokinga Mai o Te Rua Tekau m? Waru will be live on Ng? Taonga Sound & Vision's website - ngataonga.org.nz, on Tuesday, 23 February 2018. The first exhibition, Te P?taketanga o Ng? Taonga, which was launched in September 2017, highlighted the oldest recorded M?ori broadcast - recordings of the opening of T?rongo at T?rangawaewae marae, Ng?ruaw?hia in March 1938. That exhibition can also be found in the Ng? Taonga website at https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/set/the-origins-of-nga-taonga-korero

Ng? Taonga expects to launch the final two exhibitions by June 2018.

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