The “Too Hard Box”: Becoming Better Guardians of Our Material Culture Collection at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland)

Abstract (English)

While not public-facing, University Collections play an important role in understanding ongoing global and local challenges in the museum/collections world. Ethnographic and archaeological collections at universities represent significant cultural and research resources, but often come with their own difficult or troubled histories due to the colonising role of Universities past and present (Jenkins, 1994: Neils, 2012). Many university collections (such as ours) have faced significant degradation over time, with the many-faceted challenges of dealing with the breadth and scope of these collections often falling into the "too hard box" in short-term neoliberal institutional planning.

As anthropologists, archaeologists and community members at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland) in Aotearoa - New Zealand, we challenge the imposition of decay through institutional neglect and are working to lay the foundations for a more informed and relationally based future for our research collection (~500,000 objects). This paper is a reflection on the early stages of our engagement as individuals and as a discipline (department) in the creation, evolution and current future of our collection. We seek to redefine our historic role as arbiters of knowledge through university systems rooted in the historic complicity of our discipline in colonial heritage production and to better understand ourselves as ongoing guardians of this heritage with a responsibility to mana whenua of Aotearoa and all other descendant communities.

As we expand our understanding of our research collection, both physically and metaphysically, we imagine possible futures rooted in material relationality in which our collection becomes not only a bridge to our troubled past but an opportunity to become "better ancestors" (Oluo, 2019). We use this paper to explore our work towards utilising this relationship-based approach to understanding heritage and heritage management within our new project, Tiaki Tikanga – Archaeology Collections Project Aotearoa.