Tēnā koutou o nga iwi o te motu

Ko Mark Sykes tēnei, Kaiwhakahaere Kohikohinga Taonga me te Rangahau. Manager Collections and Research Whakatāne Museum. 

In our capacity as kaitiaki of many taonga tuku iho that whakapapa to ngā iwi o te motu, we have the responsibility of ensuring that your Taonga receive the best care and collection management expertise. It is our privilege as Kaitiaki Taonga and kaimahi at Taketake to take care of your treasures. 

For the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic Te Whare Taonga o Taketake will be closed to the public to enable us as people to work together to ensure that whānau, hapū and iwi stay well and healthy. 

We, at Taketake, take our kaitiakitanga seriously and over these next few weeks we have put in place measures that will ensure the museum and taonga are regularly inspected. This is to ensure that the air conditioning and temperature controls are working to keep taonga safe. We also have security patrolling the facility daily and have been instructed to take due care when doing their security checks. 

As we move forward from today please take care of each other, and if we follow our values of Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Kaitiakitanga, then we are following what has been laid down for us by our tīpuna. 

"He waka eke noa" We are all in this together

Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa,

Mark Sykes me ngā kaimahi ā Te Whare Taonga ō Taketake