A Maori exhibition on tour in Asia has sparked conversation there about the origins of tangata whenua, and their similarities to indigenous people in the region.
Photo: SUPPLIED
Photo: SUPPLIED
The New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute's Tuku Iho Exhibition has just opened in Penang, Malaysia, last stop after recently showing in China.
The institution's director, Karl Johnstone, said the exhibition of art works featuring wood, pounamu, bone, stone, bronze and flax had struck a chord with local people in south-east Asia.
He said during workshops indigenous groups had been able to easily relate to how Maori recalled knowledge, and how they remembered and celebrated cultural occasions.
Mr Johnstone said that through studying the artefacts in the exhibition, linguistic similarities and migratory patterns, people in Malaysia had been able to see how there could be ancestral links with Maori.
Mr Johnstone said the Tuku Iho exhibition would be brought back home in mid September before being taken to South America in March next year.