Celebrating Māori Taonga (treasures)

Perth Museum is delighted to make available on the Culture Perth and Kinross YouTube channel, a wonderful set of films exploring the colonial inheritance of some of our early collecting.

All seven films were made by our Māori collaborators as part of the display of Māori treasures (‘taonga’) in the new Perth Museum, in the gallery that addresses our colonial past. The taonga were selected and interpreted by our Māori colleagues and supported by a series of films looking at key aspects of Māori culture. The films help to give the Māori perspective on their past and their future, they celebrate the importance of craft and creative arts – of making –  as an avenue of restoring lost knowledge around cultural practices and re-affirming identities and cultural pride as pivotal foundations for self-determined futures.

The seven films are all directed by Norm Heke and co-produced by Perth Museum and Māori colleagues, they explore the Kākāpō parrot, the Kahu Kākāpō (‘kākāpō feather cloak’), pounamu (identity-bearing sacred stones), poupou (massive house panels), putorino (flutes), weapons and repatriation.

They were shot by Norm Heke and we are grateful to him and all his colleagues, and the key leads for each film: Lara Shepherd, Awhina Tamarapa, Dougal Austin, Ngarino Ellis, Migoto Eria and Amber Aranui.

Starting today, 18 September 2025 and over the following six weeks, we’ll be sharing this series of videos with you.

This page will be updated weekly.

Kākāpō Parrot

This film, in both English and Māori, tells the story of the unique and endangered Kākāpō parrot of Aotearoa / New Zealand. It is curated by Awhina Tamarapa and presented by Tane Davis.