The collection
Image credit: Postcard, Botanical Gardens and Basilica, Invercargill. Collection of Te Kupeka Tiaki Taoka Southern Regional Collections Trust, 83.293.
Showcasing Southland’s treasures
Te Unua Museum of Southland will celebrate one of Aotearoa’s most significant regional heritage collections – a diverse array of artefacts that tell the story of our takiwa and its people.
The Southern Regional Collection has been gathered over generations on behalf of the community, and is cared for with pride and reverence. From Māori taoka and natural history specimens, to social history objects and artworks, these artefacts reflect the rich tapestry of Murihiku Southland’s social, natural, and cultural landscape.
Image credit: Scrimshaw. Collection of Te Kupeka Tiaki Taoka – Southern Regional Collections Trust, 88.173.
Stewardship and kaitiakitanga
The Southern Regional Heritage collection is governed by Te Kupeka Tiaki Taoka Southern Regional Collections Trust. The trust works in partnership with Invercargill City Council and mana whenua to ensure the collection is cared for, managed, enhanced, and developed for future generations.
Image credit: Kākāpō, 'Sarah', from Whenua Hou Codfish Island. Collection of Te Kupeka Tiaki Taoka Southern Regional Collections Trust, 2013.295.
Te Pātaka Taoka – a new home
Telling the stories of Southland’s past, present, and future
In 2024, Invercargill City Council completed the build of its dedicated collection facility at Tisbury. The purpose-built Te Pātaka Taoka Southern Regional Collections facility protects many of Murihiku Southland’s treasured artefacts for generations to come, by housing and caring for collection items appropriately when they are not on public display. The 1650m2 facility includes state-of-the-art shelving, temperature-controlled storage areas, offices, public research spaces and workrooms.
The facility’s name, gifted by Waihōpai Rūnaka, is consistent with its cultural narrative for Invercargill, and is linked to other assets and facilities throughout the city that reference mahika kai – or traditional food gathering and resources. Mahika kai were a pillar of importance identified within the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act. The word pātaka refers to the raised-platform storehouse where food was once kept: a place to store something of great significance; particularly apt for a facility to house, care for, and provide access to items intrinsically woven into Southland’s heritage.
Meanwhile, the word taoka reflects the unique southern dialect of te reo.
