Waitui Ātea Saltwater Realm

Central City Library Tuesday 17 March - Sunday 19 July Free

Central City Library

Waitui Ātea highlights the people of the Saltwater Realm, their culture, language and homelands, brought alive by the saltwater communities that call Aotearoa home.

​Image: Stapley Farmer. Spearfishing at Ouvea Island, New Caledonia, 1960s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1056-340.

​About

Waitui Ātea highlights the people of the Saltwater Realm, defined as the Pacific region. The exhibition conveys their rich culture embellished with custom and costume; their language articulated in stories and relayed in chants, songs, dance and music; and their saltwater homelands portrayed in images and brought alive by the saltwater communities that call Aotearoa home.

Visitors to the exhibition will be able to experience rare and unique items from Auckland Libraries’ Heritage Collections, as well as treasures loaned from other cultural heritage institutions. The exhibition will also showcase the work of contemporary artists such as Michel Tuffery, Fatu Feu’u and Steve Hikaiti.

Significant items on display will include a sample book of eighteenth-century bark cloth collected on the voyages of James Cook, as well as early alphabets and religious texts that are some of the first examples of language materials ever printed in the region, plus photographs, sketches and portraits documenting historic events, places, and personalities.

​Image: Stapley Farmer. Spearfishing at Ouvea Island, New Caledonia, 1960s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1056-340.