Newspaper Article 2017 – MTG says sad farewell to museum supporter

MTG says sad farewell to museum supporter

Yesterday was a very sad day as I, along with other MTG Hawke’s Bay staff, attended the funeral for Don Millar.

Don had an ongoing association with the museum, starting from 1990 when he began his time as the honorary curator of Taonga Maori, which lasted until 2011.

For almost 20 years he committed several days a week coming to the museum to research and catalogue the taonga collection, sharing with visitors and school groups his in-depth knowledge.

Through his role at the museum, Don also built strong relationships with local iwi. An active archaeologist, he was awarded in 2011 the New Zealand Archaeological Association public archaeology award in recognition of his outstanding work and dedication.

Don worked closely with Maori and had a great love of and respect for Maori culture.

A karakia was held for Don at a local Maori archaeological site yesterday for people who could not attend the service.

While I only knew Don for a short period, he had a great impact on me. I met him in 2015 when I was giving a public presentation about the museum and where we are heading.

Don was a stalwart supporter of what the museum was doing and of me personally – often turning up to many of my talks and reminding me if I’d forgotten anything.

In his last few weeks Don was still ensuring he did things to support the museum, Maori and the wider community – bringing in the last of his toki collection from Tukituki Valley, Pakarae River and elsewhere, to ensure these are kept safe for future generations.

I’m incredibly grateful for the short time I had with Don and along with museum staff truly treasure the memories we have of him.

On Thursday night this week the Hawke’s Bay Museum Foundation, also huge supporters of the museum, came together for a function and a more in-depth look at the Out of the Box exhibition before it closes on Monday.

We were delighted and very lucky to have Peter Shaw, curator of the Fletcher Trust collection, walk us through the gallery and talk to specific artworks.

Peter has great depth of knowledge about New Zealand art and the personal stories and anecdotes he was able to share really brought the artists and their work to life.

At the same event, the chairs of the Hawke’s Bay Museum Foundation and the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust acknowledged another example of support for the museum.

This was the very tangible, regional support of five different entities coming together to purchase a significant body of work for the collection. Napier City Council, Hastings, District Council, Napier Port, the foundation and the trust jointly purchased four Jono Rotman works from a series titled Omaranui.

The artist, together with his dealer gallery Gow Langsford, contributed the final two works in the series so we have a complete set in the collection.

These works will go on display in early September.

It takes many hands, and lots of different kinds of support, to make institutions such as ours work and we’re grateful to those who give so generously – of time, funds, knowledge and active support – we couldn’t do it without you.

Photo captions –

FLASH BACK: Don Millar (second from left) participating in karakia at the museum.

Laura Vodanovich is the director of the Museum Theatre Gallery (MTG) Hawke’s Bay.