Collections

Museum Display

In our Museum we have on long term display a significant array of taonga Maori and noteworthy examples of Whakatane’s rich European stories and natural history.

At present the displays are thematic and include Early Technology, Colonial Whakatane, New Zealand Wars, Seafaring and Migration, Maori Weapons, Raranga, Maori Food, Toi Whakairo and Natural History.

Cabinet of Curiosities

The Whakatane Museum and Gallery Cabinet of Curiosities is a display case specifically for the exhibition of personal collections. The cabinet is intended to act as a means of encouraging those that have fossicked and ferreted away keepsakes that hold a special fascination, and to pull them out of hiding for all of us to enjoy in an intimate museum setting.

The Cabinet of Curiosities, also called Wunderkammer or wonder-rooms, developed in central Europe. Initially the term ‘cabinet’ or ‘closet’ referred to a room rather then a piece of furniture and would be where a collector, often wealthy and of the aristocracy, kept his personal collection of exotic, unusual and curious objects. Many of these collectors engaged in unusual practices in order to fulfil their interests. Some, including Peter the Great of Russia had a macabre fascination with anatomy and physiology, gathering together a disturbing array of preserved babies, pulled teeth and animal organs. Other collectors were more interested in classicism and the orient, with impressive groupings of archaeological material, natural history and cultural artefacts. Many of these collections have become the foundations of some of the most famous museums in the world including the Hermitage, the Smithsonian and the British Museum of Natural History.

This particular cabinet is thought to originally have taken pride of place in a local homestead called Awaroa in Edgecumbe. The homestead was built for Mr Charles Reid of Auckland in 1904, but has subsequently been relocated to Otakiri, just out of Edgecumbe.