Nelson City Council

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Māori collections

The library maintains two Māori collections - the Māori Heritage Collection and the Māori non-fiction collection.  These collections play an important role in the Library's commitment to obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  

Māori Heritage collection

This collection is housed in the Research room and is for library-use only.  The core of the collection is historic books relating to Māori from the Nelson Institute; a full list of items in the collections is available here.
Items are added to the collection if they are of significant heritage or research value, relating to Tangata Whenua or Top of the South Island iwi, are vulnerable or fragile, or are a key resource generally for Māori.

Collection highlights: 

• Mckay, A (1873) A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island. Wellington : Government Printer
  Held 993.7: COM (covers Nelson)
• Menzies, J (1975) Maori patterns painted and carved Christchurch (2^nd ed.) : Hagley Press.
  Held: 745.441 MEN (numbered copy)
• Buick, T (1933) The treaty of Waitangi or how New Zealand became a British Colony ( 2^nd ed.) New Plymouth :  Thomas Avery. 
  Held: 993 BUI
  (This is agreed to be the standard version, written when many chiefs who signed it were still alive. The 1914 edition is also held)

Māori non-fiction collection

This collection is located at the end of the Non-Fiction shelving. It is primarily a lending collection and gathers together Māori material from across the non-fiction subject areas. 

Collection highlight ;

• Mitchell, Hilary & John (2004-) Te tau ihu o te Waka : a history of Maori of Nelson and Marlborough. Wellington, N.Z. : Huia Publishers in association with the Wakatū Incorporation. 
  In three volumes: v. 1. Te tangata me te whenua -  The people and the land; v. 2.Te Ara Hou - The new society; v.3 Nga tupuna - The ancestors

Online Resources

• Māori Land Court Minute Book Index 
  • for use in the Library only.
  • A fully searchable index to minute books 1865 - 1910, including Waipounamu Maori Land Court District, covering the Nelson area. Copies of the Nelson Minute Books are held in the Maori Heritage Collection.

For other useful websites see our list of online resources.

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