“Te Maori”: New Precedents for Indigenous Art at The Met

gathered at dawn outside The Metropolitan Museum of Art and prepared to carry out ritual protocols for the opening of a new art exhibition. The group of Māori elders had accompanied 174 ancestral taonga (cultural treasures) on their first journey away from the shores of New Zealand to the United States. With the traffic stopped on Fifth Avenue, the karanga (call) of the women pierced the air and the group began to move forward toward the museum, the men chanting steadily. Dressed in the prestigious finery of flax and feather cloaks, the delegation of senior Māori leaders ascended the front steps of the Museum, where they were joined by the Museum’s director, Philippe de Montebello, the mayor of New York, city officials, sponsors, and invited guests (fig. 1). “Te Maori”: New Precedents for Indigenous Art at The Met