An archive of thousands of photos documenting Māori life in the 20th century will be repatriated into public ownership after nearly being destroyed overseas.
The purchase of the archive of 5300 photos, valued at around $340,000, has come as a result of a new deal between the archive's foreign owner and the National Library.
Around 1.4 million images from the archives of newspaper company Fairfax Media have been held by a US-based art gallery for years following a long-running saga over their ownership that began more than 10 years ago.
Art valuer Sophie Coupland said the new tangata whenua collection acquired by the National Library was an important taonga as a record of Māori history.
"The collection presents a comprehensive documentary of Māori culture and society, largely through the second half of the 20th century but with some early 20th-century material included."'
The historic archive includes important images of key figures in Māoridom including; Dame Whina Cooper, Eva Rickard, artists such as Rangimārie Hetet, entertainers Billy T James, Dalvanius Prime, Howard Morrison, Rawiri Paratene and Tina Cross, activist Titewhai Harawira taken by Gil Hanly, Dun Mihaka and Tāme Iti, writers Patricia Grace, Michael King, Hone Tuwhare and Witi Ihimaera, alongside images of politicians such as Koro Wetere, official ceremonies and images of the Māori royal family.
Coupland said: "It also includes a significant section of images documenting political activation which includes many of the Bastion Point occupation and protests, images of political conflict at Waitangi and the 1992 referendum on fisheries."
She said the photos also showed the lives and issues of everyday people.
"This includes images of Māori social housing, issues relating to Māori health, Māori wardens, the Māori Battalion, kohanga reo, artists, weavers, events such as tangihanga and the re Māori exhibition, the opening and restoration of marae buildings, waka carving and racing events, haka and poi demonstrations and food gathering and preparation."
In 2013, Fairfax Media sent its archive of photography stretching back centuries of New Zealand history to the US to be digitised. They largely consist of photos from the archives of six regional newspapers, including The Post and The Press.
After the digitisation company went bankrupt amid an FBI probe of its owner, the Fairfax photos were in danger of being destroyed.
They were acquired by the Duncan Miller Gallery years later.
The gallery's Daniel Miller said while the tangata whenua collection was valued at $340,000, the archive itself was purchased for significantly less.
"The strongest images within the collection have both aesthetic appeal and convey something crucial and essential of Māori social history; images which encapsulate a pivotal event or capture a defining mood."
Other photographs as part of the Fairfax archives of more than 1 million photographs are available for sale to the general public.
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