Canterbury Museum marks 150 years with taonga and cake

Canterbury Museum is marking its 150th anniversary today with rarely-seen taonga (treasures) showcased in a new exhibition.

Thursday marks 150 years since the museum’s doors first opened on Rolleston Ave. And to celebrate, there will be complimentary birthday cake for visitors (while supplies last) from 10am in the foyer.

Since 1870, the museum’s collection has swelled from 25,000 objects to more than 2.3 million.

More than 30 of the taonga will emerge from the museum’s storerooms to be displayed in the exhibition House of Treasures: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho, which opened today.

The exhibition includes the boots Sir Edmund Hillary wore when he summited Mt Everest, the dress Kate Sheppard wears on the $10 note, and the only remaining nest of Aotearoa New Zealand’s extinct native Huia bird.

The taonga range in size from the 4.5m South Island Giant Moa skeleton to the 0.63mm fairy fly – one of the smallest flying insects in the world.

House of Treasures includes one of the oldest human-made objects in the museum’s collection - an Acheulean hand-axe likely crafted by an ancient human species up to 450,000 years ago.

Museum director Anthony Wright says the exhibition is an opportunity for Cantabrians to view some of their more rarely-seen treasures.

"Some of these objects don’t go on display very often, either because they’re too delicate, like the Kate Sheppard dress, or because we just don’t have the space.

"The Huia nest is one of my absolute favourites. It’s the only known nest in the world, which makes for very poignant viewing.”

The objects in the exhibition are drawn from a book the museum has produced to celebrate its 150th year on Rolleston Ave.

The book, House of Treasures: 150 Objects from Canterbury Museum Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho, features 150 taonga from the museum’s collection, superbly captured by award-winning photographer Jane Ussher with accompanying by text from museum staff.

The book will be sold at selected bookstores nationwide, in the Museum Store and through the museum’s website.

"We’re very proud of this book," Wright said. 

"Jane’s photographs are stunning and our staff have written some really lively and engaging text to accompany them.

"The book is a terrific way to showcase to Aotearoa New Zealand, and the world, the huge range of the collection that we care for on behalf of the people of Canterbury.

"It also honours the generations of staff, volunteers and visitors who have made the museum the remarkable and much-loved place that it is today."

In addition to the 31 objects in the House of Treasures exhibition, a further 38 objects from the museum’s permanent displays feature in the book.  These have been placed inside gold frames to highlight their significance and their connection to the exhibition.

The objects include Canterbury Museum icons like the Tucker Sno-Cat in the Antarctic Gallery, the carved kānuka kurī (dog) in Iwi Tawhito and Ivan Mauger’s gold-plated motorbike.

Wright says the 150th anniversary is a time to celebrate the museum’s history and look to its future, as it gears up for a proposed redevelopment that will protect its heritage buildings and create more exhibition and storage space suitable for a modern museum.

"It’s fantastic to be celebrating 150 years in the same building we started out in, but we urgently need to make some changes to ensure we can stay here for many more,” Wright says.

The exhibition House of Treasures: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho opens on level 3 of the museum on October 1. The book House of Treasures: 150 Objects from Canterbury Museum Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho will go on sale shortly afterwards.