The Auckland City Art Gallery has created an online collection of 68 portraits of Maori done in the late 19th and early 20th century by the Austrian-born artist Gottfried Lindauer.
More than 70 descendants of the portrait subjects, as well as descendants of the painter and his business partner Henry Partridge, were at Awataha marae in Northcote on Friday to launch the lindaueronline.co.nz site.
George Parakowhai, a descendant of Pera Tutoko of Nga Potiki, Te Aitanga a Mahaki and Ngai Tuhoe, told Waatea News that having the collection online will allow young generations to get a visual fix on their whakapapa and tribal histories.
As well as the portraits, the site includes the visitors' book kept by Mr Partridge when he exhibited the paintings between 1901 and 1918, and it will allow today's visitors to share stories of their ancestors.