We received a wonderful letter from Tyron Clark, Room 3 Waipu Primary School, thanking us for being able to visit our "cool" museum. Tyron says, Thank you for letting us see some old things (was he talking about the objects on display?) and the DVD taught me something. That something is because when I left the museum, I found some glass in the sea. I picked it up and found another piece of glass! It is entirely possible that the piece of glass Tyron found is from an 1800s bottle dropped o… Continue

For just over a week, as local weaver Donna Baker prepared flax strips for the piupiu she is making, the fragrence of fresh cut flax wafted through the museum. I liked it. The process of "doing" rather than "observing" was an important element in the exhibition. It brought our museum environment alive. Here we see Donna preparing the flax strips.

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Sometimes people's donations just take my breath away. We have had two such gifts in the past, one just recently. The museum received a substantial amount of Pauline Yearbury's artwork, so much in fact that it could possibly end up as a traveling exhibition. Pauline and Jim Yearbury are well known for their incised wooden panels, and in particular Pauline’s book “The Children of Rangi and Papa, The Maori story of Creation. First published in 1976 the book was a successful combination of art and… Continue

We are coming up to Matariki (Maori New Year) which starts on 22 June and have a really wonderful opportunity to host a local weaver, Donna Baker as she makes a piupiu. Piupiu maker are rare in New Zealand, especially those who have received excellent training from kuia such as Digress Te Kanawa and Googie Tapsell. Donna will be at the museum from 10.30 am to 3.00 pm Monday to Friday from the 22-26th June 2009. Talking to her about the process of selecting a pattern was interesting as there is a… Continue

The Maori word for walking stick is tokotoko.

Tokotoko - the talking/walking stick exhibition is brining a lot of pleasure to visitors to Russell Museum as they reminisce about walking sticks being used by members of their family. The exhibition asks us to consider the uneasy contradiction between old age, wisdom and frailty and the tokotoko. Below are comments written by visitors which give us an insight into their experiences and memories of tokotoko around the world.

"My father, Cecil Edge,… Continue