The doors are open on the reshuffle of Christchurch’s gallery and museum spaces, with a Christchurch Art Gallery and Canterbury Museum collab showing at the art gallery and an exhibition at the Centre of Contemporary Art marking that gallery’s reopening.

As we reported in January, Canterbury Museum has closed its doors for five years for a major redevelopment. A decision to open a pop-up museum on the first floor of the nearby CoCA building has enabled that gallery to reopen on the ground floor after prohibitive costs for upgrades to its 1968 modernist building shut the doors in May last year.

While we await the museum pop-up’s opening at CoCA, the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū exhibition Ship Nails
and Tail Feathers beautifully illustrates the potential for collaboration between gallery and museum. Taonga (treasures) from each collection have been handpicked by curators from both institutions, making for an unusual selection of the rare, the exquisite and the extravagant.

Meanwhile, an exhibition by artist Tia Barrett marks the reopening of the Centre of Contemporary Art. Its ground-floor exhibition space, Ō Papa Gallery, will host Barrett’s He Pounamu Ko Āu, which likens the resilience and perseverance of mana wāhine Māori to the journey of pounamu rising to the surface of the earth's crust.

Gallery Director Blair Jackson says combining the collections provides a rare and rich experience for curious visitors. Brought together, the objects, art and adornments tell fascinating stories about how people lived and what they valued.

Canterbury Museum Acting Director Sarah Murray says the museum is thrilled to be collaborating with the gallery in showcasing the taonga from Aotearoa, Te Moana nui a Kiwa (the Pacific) and around the world.

Joining the Ship Nails and Tail Feathers exhibition in Te Puna o Waiwhetū will be a very special piece of Māori cultural heritage. Te Rā is the only known customary Māori sail in existence. Held in the collection of the British Museum, the sail’s homecoming is of huge moment – the more than 200-year-old taonga has been shown to the public only once.

At nearly 4.5m metres long and featuring a complex three-way pattern woven from harakeke, Te Rā is a feat of weaving technology and a reminder of the rich history of Māori sailing and navigation.

Weaver Ranui Ngarimu ONZM (Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga), a member of the research team who initiated the exhibition, says Te Rā is one of the earliest surviving examples of the Māori art of raranga (weaving).

“This exhibition is deeply significant for the way it builds on our cultural and historical knowledge of Māori weaving and voyaging. The incredible skill of those early Māori weavers and the innovative techniques and technology they developed are truly awe-inspiring,” she says. “This is where artistry meets history.”

Ship Nails and Tail Feathers, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Sat 10 Jun – Mon 23 Oct.
Te Rā: The Māori Sail, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Sat 8 Jul – Mon 23 Oct.
He Pounamu Ko Āu, an exhibition by Tia Barrett, Ō Papa Gallery, CoCA, Sat 24 Jun – Sun 30 Aug.