Replicas made of rare Moriori bone flute

Moriori bone flutes (miheke oro) are so rare it is almost impossible to get anywhere near one, let alone play one.

Only two are known to be left in the world.

But University of Otago science communication and film-making director Dr Gianna Savoie and School of Performing Arts head and ethnomusicologist Dr Jennifer Cattermole have been able to get their hands on one, stored at the Bishop Museum, in Hawaii.

They recently spent a couple of weeks at the museum, scanning it with a CT scanner, and have since used the scans to make 3-D printed replicas.

Dr Savoie said the replicas are to be played, acoustically tested and recorded by Moriori musicians, and integrated into a multi-sensory exhibit at Otago Museum next year, as part of the Moriori, Music and Manawa: Engaging Multisensory Experiences for Indigenous Cultural Revitalisation project.

Dr Cattermole said the Chatham Islands artefact was made from albatross wing bone, and was believed to be more than 100 years old.

"Often with the original artefacts, you’re not allowed to play them because they’re too fragile or the curators are worried about you contaminating them with body oils.

"There’s also instances overseas with artefacts being treated with really toxic, awful, harmful chemicals as preservatives, and so playing an instrument that had been treated with those chemicals would probably be life-threatening.

"So having replicas like this — there’s a lot to recommend them."

The replicas are so detailed, they have the same etchings and scratches as the original.

She said the project was important because there were many misconceptions about the Moriori culture — "firstly, that the culture doesn’t exist.

"And secondly, there was a lot of damage done through school journals back in the day, which published articles [about the Moriori culture] and these were read by generations of schoolkids.

"We were taught some really negative perceptions of Moriori people, and this tries to go in and correct that — try to remove some of that stigma that existed for a lot of years, around what it meant to be Moriori.

"It’s about re-instilling cultural pride and just getting that message out there that Moriori are still very much here and have a wonderful, vibrant culture that they still live and practice."