INDIGENOUS CULTURAL MATERIAL

Indigenous cultural material are taonga - treasures inherited from our ancestors and held within ongoing, living relationships between people, place, and community.

Our approach moves beyond caring for the physical object alone. We work with a holistic understanding of taonga as living, breathing, and continually evolving - where cultural knowledge, relationships, and responsibility are central to their care.

Working alongside iwi, hapū, First Nations communities, and cultural organisations across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, we support the care, understanding, and management of Indigenous cultural material in ways that are culturally grounded, ethically informed, and community-led.

Our practice brings together conservation expertise with Indigenous-led methodologies, grounded in tikanga Māori, collaborative decision-making, and respect for cultural authority. This approach has informed our work across conservation treatment, collection care, exhibition development, and advisory projects - including contributions to significant cultural initiatives such as Te Rā, where tikanga and community governance shaped conservation decision-making and outcomes.

We work across both the tangible and intangible - supporting how taonga are cared for, documented, interpreted, accessed, and used - ensuring cultural values are embedded throughout.

Services include:

• Conservation assessment and treatment of Indigenous cultural material

• Preventive conservation and collection care advice

• Cultural material handling protocols and access guidance

• Significance assessments and cultural context documentation

• Preservation needs assessments and collection surveys

• Conservation planning and collection care strategies

• Exhibition development, installation, and object support

• Indigenous-led conservation consultancy and advisory services

• Community engagement, workshops, and training

We have experience working with materials including:

• Plant materials

• Wood

• Natural fibres

• Feathers

• Woven materials

• Shell

• Bone

• Animal skin and fur

• Bark cloth (tapa)

• Other animal-based materials