Among the thousands of objects in Te Manawa’s collection are taonga that reveal an important piece of our history: the legacy of our very first Director, Mina McKenzie.

Now on display at Te Manawa, Keeping the Taonga Warm presents the material legacy Mina left behind when she passed away in 1997. These taonga tell of a career spent advocating for a museums sector that valued whakapapa and promoted manaakitanga. But they are just part of the story. Much of Mina McKenzie’s legacy is intangible. It exists in the way museums today work to keep taonga warm: connecting with tāngata whenua, understanding that communities are as important as collections.

Mina McKenzie was the first Māori woman to become a museum Director, and she held this post at Manawatū Museum (now Te Manawa) from 1978 to 1994.

Under Mina’s leadership, our institution became a place for exploring new ideas about the role of museums.