TAONGA TAURANGA MUSEUM and HERITAGE CENTRE FOR TAURANGA

'Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamura'
'When you understand the past, you know your future'

Welcome to
Taonga Tauranga | Heritage Bay of Plenty

We are the leading heritage voice in the community
towards establishing curated museums and ceremonial Heritage Centres
in Tauranga city for local, regional and national interest

Photograph acknowledgement: The Elms, Tauranga City Libraries, NZ History

Introduction
We are an independent heritage group working towards developing a Bay of Plenty Heritage Strategy in conjunction with tangata whenua and our local and regional heritage community, including councils. Our ultimate goal is to raise the heritage profile generally, address missing aspects of it within in our region, then connect the sector together locally, regionally and in turn nationally. One of the goals under the Strategy will be to see the establishment of a curated museum and ceremonial heritage centre (ideally situated within Tauranga's Historic Precinct at Otamataha Pā /Cliff Road). We also support a purpose built national heritage centre / exhibition space at Gate Pā, Tauranga (opposite historic St George's Anglican Church) to commemorate the Battles of Gate Pā, Te Ranga and the New Zealand Land Wars. We also acknowledge the enormous amount of ongoing work done by others towards achieving these collective goals.

We are now enjoying strong levels of community support and partnership from within the local and regional historic/heritage sector, the business sector interested in supporting heritage and relevant council departments. This is a significant step forward for heritage in Tauranga and our region.

The chronological history of a museum in Tauranga

1873 First recorded museum collection on display at Mechanics Institute,
  Harington Street
1881 Disaster strikes - the Institute and collection are destroyed by fire
1882 Museum exhibition opens, including 100 Taonga from Captain Gilbert
  Mair
1906 Mechanics Institute becomes a public library
1938 Collection on display in Town Hall, Willow Street
1941 Collection goes into hiding during WWII
1969 New museum opens on the corner of Durham and Hamilton
  Streets
1975 Collection expands at Tauranga Historic Village and District Museum
1998 Collection goes into storage - where it remains to this day
2019 The Heritage Collection turns 50
2020+ Lets start planning our iconic Heritage Centre & Museum in
  Tauranga's historic precinct ay Otamataha Pā!

Contribution
from Tauranga Heritage Collection
Our wonderful volunteers

Tauranga Heritage Collection
Summer 2020
Our wonderful volunteers

At the Tauranga Heritage Collection nothing signals Christmas is coming more than our wonderful team of volunteers going on their well-deserved summer break. Every week our dedicated volunteers tackle a mountain of work that contributes towards the preservation of our city’s heritage. From research and cataloguing to sewing and proof-reading our volunteers have skills and experience we couldn’t do without. Indeed, we really can’t thank them enough for everything they do. READ HERE:

Donate to Brian's Fund here and become a
'Heritage Friend' with us
Donation form here

Tauranga Heritage Collection
Check contributions here

Brian was a long term volunteer at The Elms, supporter of The Tauranga Historical Society and a passionate museum advocate. Brian’s vision was that the people of Tauranga & Western Bay could have a suitable place to tell rich stories that spanned culture, whanau, heritage and time.
Read the brochure here

Each month, together with Tauranga City's Heritage Collection, Taonga Tauranga will discover some of the rich stories and Taonga that makes our region what it is today. Read more about our city's heritage here.

Our People - Our Place - Our Stories

READ MORE HERE

Victory at Gate Pā?

Taonga Tauranga supports the continuing work honouring the Battles of Gate Pā and Te Ranga, both significant events during the New Zealand Wars period (1840-1864) which led to widespread land confiscation resulting in the historic Anglican Apology of 1 December 2018 at the Otamataha Pā site, Cliff Road, Tauranga. See our page here

Victory at Gate Pā? - the book

Take a heritage tour with Buddy Mikaere

The recently released book Victory at Gate Pā? by historians Buddy Mikaere
and Dr Cliff Simons is an outstanding explanatory read. Available here.

Take an inspirational tour with historian Buddy Mikaere from Taiao Events on the integrated powerful history of The Elms, Gate Pa and Te Ranga.
For more information click here and fill in the form provided or ring Buddy on:
+64 21 384 620

Taonga - our treasure
Taonga are not just artefacts but also the abundant natural resources such as our rivers, our seabed, our coastline, the Kaimai range and the abundant fauna and flora that flourish within our region: read more about Taonga here.

Photograph acknowledgement: Battle of Gate Pā, The Gate Pa Charitable Trust, Dave Tipper courtesy Tauranga City Libraries

Welcome toTaonga Tauranga | Heritage Bay of Plenty

Welcome to
Taonga Tauranga | Heritage Bay of Plenty