Maori Women Give Voice To Their Stories In New Online Exhibition

Ng? Taonga Sound & Vision has announced the launch of Maioha - Te Reo o te M?reikura, an exhibition that profiles an important collection of radio interviews with M?ori women, originally broadcast in 1993. The interviews were the result of a project instigated by the Waiatarau Branch of Te R?p? W?hine M?ori Toko i te Ora - The M?ori Women's Welfare League (MWWL), to mark the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples and the centenary of Women's Suffrage. Ng? Taonga Pou ?rahi, Honiana Love says: "This was a project with the stated aim of making M?ori women more visible through their voices. Twenty-five years later and on the 125th anniversary of New Zealand women gaining the right to vote, Ng? Taonga is thrilled to be sharing these insightful and often very personal stories again.

Fifty women, chosen for their local, national or international contributions, were interviewed in the languague of their choice - a radical idea for 1993. The ones we have chosen for this exhibition are mostly in te reo and many of the women took the opportunity to talk about their experiences growing up M?ori. Their k?rero allows us a glimpse of a world now gone," says Ms Love.

Maioha - Te Reo o te M?reikura is the fourth and last of the online exhibitions launched over the past 12 months from Ng? Taonga K?rero, the archive of RNZ's M?ori radio programmes. The exhibition will be live on the exhibition section of our website from 3pm, Wednesday 13 June. The other three exhibitions are all still available:

• Te P?taketanga o Ng? Taonga K?rero - the opening of T?rongo House at T?rangawaewae Marae in 1938.
• Te Hokinga Mai o Te Rua Tekau m? Waru - the return of the M?ori Battalion from World War Two in 1946.
• Te Reo P?p?ho - the story of te reo on air featuring the broadcasters who championed te reo M?ori on radio.

Ng? Taonga Sound & Vision is New Zealand's audiovisual archive. We save and cherish the stories, creativity and history of Aotearoa New Zealand in sound and moving images. With strong values of connection, creativity and conservation our purpose is to collect, share and care for New Zealand's audiovisual taonga. The Ng? Taonga K?rero exhibitions contain many outstanding examples of oratory and M?ori performing arts. Ng? Taonga is committed to sharing these taonga so that more New Zealanders can hear again the rich vocabulary and voices captured in these recordings.