Blog Assignment7-Respnd The Auckland War Memorial Museum Visit

In the Auckland War Memorial Museum we saw a wild range of exhibitions about New Zealand culture and history. At the ground level, there are many spaces display the Pacific Island communities and many astonishing beautiful objects they produced like models which can reflect history, toys and tools people played and used in the past. Some galleries tell the story of Pakeha childhood while the Maori court displays many kinds of objects which deeply tell people the magnificent culture of Maori. Other spaces show the international design and decorative arts.

When it comes to the Maori culture, all the objects showed in the Maori Court are outstanding. The majority of Maori's historical objects like sculptures made of wood are show in the glass walls because these treasures are untouchable. One of the most astonishing objects is the Te Toki a Topiri, displayed at the right corner of the Maori Court. This is the last of the great Maori war canoes. With the hull adzed from a singe huge log, the canoe is 25m long and can carry 100 warriors. This show makes me think of the Camakau, sailing canoe. This canoe is produced by Fijian craftsmen, made of wood, too. It is a dugout sailing canoe with outrigger, added wash strakes and decking. This canoe is not that long like Te Toki a Topiri, but in my opinion, I think this one is displayed much better. With the moving blue lights under the canoe, and dark lights as the background, it more looks like a canoe comes from dream.

I was also attracted by the Wild Child space, people can enjoy a story of childhood in New Zealand over the past 150 years. When you step in this place, first you will see a life-size elephant standing in black iron railings, this elephant called Rajah, an icon of Auckland Museum and Auckland's childhoods. And I think that is why Rajsh placed at the head of the Wild Child. Most of the objects displayed here are toys, dolls with strings, many kinds of sweet sugars. Plush toys, cars, photographs, dolls are hanging on the wall or setting on the ground inside glass walls. What special we can see is how those different sugars displayed, each kind of sugars are set in a glass block and when all the blocks get together, it looks very colorful. On the left side of the space, people can see some uniformed children models in the window wall, models are all white, so the colorful uniforms can stand out.

However, in my opinion, the childhood story should be told in a better way. Many objects are represent very simple, people come here just browsing the objects but not totally into the story and after they walk out of the space they may remember nothing. A little bit change is necessary, like when talking about the uniformed children, how about make a series of 3D film for people to watch or put on some historical files, photographs. And if elephant Rajsh graved more special than other elephants, or make some voice to let people pay more attention, that will be a better way to represent that Rajsh don't like viewers riding on it's back in the zoo.