OTAGO MUSEUM

A WORLD-CLASS COLLECTION
OUTCOMES INDICATORS PERFORMANCE MEASURES ACHIEVED OR NOT ACHIEVED PERFORMANCE STATUS
33
• Dr Catherine Smith was appointed Honorary Curator and will focus her research on the
Māori textiles collection.
• The Museum continues to manage a small grants program that encourages use and
research of our collections: Taxonomy, Geology (Humanities) and report outcomes.
• Otago Museum Linnaeus Taxonomy Fellowship offered
• Otago Museum Zoology Scholarship offered
Humanities collaborations that further our knowledge of the collection include the following:
• The Museum’s collaboration with the Cuneiform in Australia and New Zealand (CANZ)
project continues. Professor Wayne Horowitz provided translations for a group of
cuneiform tablets that were exhibited in the Gifts and Legacies exhibition.
• Collection staff are working with a University of Otago PhD candidate in the Classics
Department, Andrew Stopyra, on the translation of the small group of cuneiform cones
with a view to adding them to the international Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
database.
• The Museum’s collaboration with Roger Croston to identify the location and subject
shown in Professor William Dunning’s photographs of Tibet is underway and will
continue.
• A paper presenting the results of a research collaboration on the age and interpretation
of perishable artefacts from Māori rock shelter sites in inland Otago was submitted to
the Journal of Pacific Archaeology.
• The Museum photographed and provided images of various collection items for use by
staff at the Department of Classics in lectures on mythological themes.
Natural Science collaborations that further our knowledge of the collection include the following:
• The Natural Science team utilised the CT scanning facilities at Invermay this year for
marine mammal work.
• The team are members of the large pragmatic fish/shark species response group at the
Marine Studies Centre, Portobello.
• Bugs exhibition collaborations included interpreting and communicating the research
work of Associate Professor Peter Dearden (OU Genetics), Dr Barbara Barratt (OU
Zoology) and Masters student Stacey Bryan (OU Zoology).
Māori cultural collaborations that further our knowledge of the collection include the following:
• The relationship between Te Tumu, University of Otago and the Museum has been
reinvigorated and intensified with the appointment of the Museum’s Curator, Māori.