Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin is ''delighted'' the museum has gained two lottery grants totalling $350,000, for projects marking 250 years since the first onshore meetings between Maori and Europeans in this country.
The commemoration programme is titled Tuia Encounters 250.
The Internal Affairs Department said $9million of Lottery Grants Board funding had been invested in initiatives that ''connect and build understanding of New Zealand's dual heritage, whakapapa, identity, as well as arts, science, and technology''.
The Lottery Tuia Encounters 250 Committee this month approved $4,055,732 in funding towards related projects.
The Otago Museum Trust Board received two of the 24 grants, including $235,000 towards a ''high profile, nationally-co-ordinated programme of inspirational science activities'' reflecting on the 250th anniversary of a rare transit of Mercury across the sun on November 10, 1769.
This project is called Ka mua, ka muri, Te Mahutatanga o Takero, Looking Back & Looking Forward, Mercury Rising, and uses the transit to inspire multicultural interest in astronomy and an appreciation of its importance in the history of Aotearoa's settlement.
Dr Griffin leads this project, which seeks to encourage people to ''come together and see this amazing event''.
The significant astronomical event coincides with the anniversary of the observation of the same phenomenon, by astronomer Charles Green and Captain James Cook, from Mercury Bay, on November 10, 1769.
The museum's education team has also gained $115,000 for a project that will focus on several themes, including astronomy and celestial navigation; Maori culture and technology; early settlement and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Museum education manager Dr Kate Timms-Dean said the museum aimed to take the programme to more than 3000 people in Otago-Southland,
A full-time Tuia educator will be appointed to develop, deliver and evaluate the programme, which will be delivered in Dunedin in the first term, and across Otago and Southland in terms 2-4, she said.
