The collection at Te Manawa numbers around 300,000 items, and includes artworks, taonga, heritage objects, technology and natural history specimens. By maintaining these collections, Te Manawa seeks to preserve the region’s heritage and enrich our community’s cultural life.

Te Manawa cares for taonga Māori in consultation with tāngata whenua. Tikanga and kawa are practised when required, in conjunction with iwi guidance.

Tuku Taonga | Offers

From time to time, Te Manawa acquires new objects for its collection. Our collection has largely been built on generous gifts from our community.

Offers that match our collection focus are assigned to a team member to investigate further and write an acquisition proposal. All proposed gifts must go through an approval process. The process can take some time and unfortunately not all offers can be accepted (even if we really like them!). Some of the things we consider are:

• Provenance

• Place of origin

• Known History

• Spatial needs and ongoing care

• For artworks we also consider artist, theme and medium

If you have something you think we’d be interested in and would like to make an offer, please fill in this form and send it to collections@temanawa.co.nz