Event Highlight:
After Dark – Neon Nights
Planetarium Highlight:
Dinosaurs: A Story of Survival
Rakahau te Kohika
World
Pacific
European Costume and Textiles
Taoka Maori
Complete taiaha. Human face carved on both sides of the proximal end. Rauru (spiral and notch) pattern carved on protruding tongue. Distal edge of the tongue tapers to a point; sides are flattened. Paua shell inlay is intact in three of four eyes. Cloth padding wrapped around the shaft below the carved faces; narrow strip of black cloth patterned with yellow dots and a larger piece of undecorated brown cloth. Cloth and remnants of bird quills are lashed on using plaited muka fibre. Tufts of white dog hair attached to plaited muka at the base of the shaft. Blade is undecorated and worked smooth, tapering to a slight point at the distal edge.