As a follow-up to the 2005 Regenstein Maori Workshop at the Museum, Dr. Scott Lidgard of the Department of Geology at the Museum and Dr. John Terrell led a delegation of Chicagoans to Pakirkiri Marae at Tokomaru Bay in 2006 to connect anew with the community there and go over the recommendations coming out of the workshop.

Later that same year, Christopher Philipp, Regenstein Collections Manager of Pacific Anthropology at the Museum, visited Tamaki Paenga Hira (Auckland Museum) and Te Papa Tongarewa to learn firsthand about current collections management practice in New Zealand, and interview conservators, collections managers, cultural experts, and others about the restoration of meeting houses.

Later still in 2006, Désirée Wisse, at that time Regenstein Pacific Conservator at that time, and Ruth Norton, Head of our Division of Conservation, attended the New Zealand Professional Conservators Group conference that October in Gisborne, a town just south of Tokomaru Bay, to continue the Museum’s consultation with New Zealand conservation and cultural experts.

They, too, were formally greeted on Pakirkiri Marae at Tokomaru Bay.