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Family wants its treasures returned - THURSDAY JULY 8, 2010

Des Cotman expressed fears on Tuesday that Kaitaia's Far North Regional Museum collection would begin dwindling when those who had contributed to it, and their descendants, began to understand the transformation that would take place as it became part of Te Ahu.
It didn't take long for evidence of that to emerge.
A Kaitaia woman whose parents made numerous contributions to the collection over many years told The Northland Age on Tuesday that the family would be asking for those items to be returned, to ensure they would not be lost.
"We've been thinking about it for a while," she said, "and now that we've read what Des Cotman has to say (Cotman bows to 'stunning ignorance,' July 6) we've made up our minds.
"We're just going through the list now. There's quite a bit of it."
Mr Cotman, who publicly announced on Tuesday that he had resigned as the museum curator manager, a position which he said was about to be disestablished in any event, warned that the "politically correct concept of Te Ahu's breed of museum" would lead to the question as to who actually owned the collection. The Far North District Council and its "acolyte" Te Ahu believed it was theirs, but he disagreed.
"This is our community's collection," he said.
"It has been assembled through the generosity of locals who put their taonga and treasure into what they imagined was the inviolate safety of the museum so that we could all experience and enjoy it," he said. "Larger museums can get away with disposing of donated items; we should not even are contemplate this. We are too close and known to each other. We would all feel such betrayal."
The dismantling of a large part of the collection would be inevitable, he suggested however, given the Te Ahu concept of a museum reflecting seven iwi (the five Te Hiku o Te Ika tribes, Pakeha and Dalmatian), which would see just one-seventh of the available space allocated to European heritage.
"When I came to this district 35 years ago I recognised its uniqueness as to who we have become here, without reference to race or colour," he said. "If I was asked what this new museum should tell I would say it would be to convey and illuminate, to ourselves and to others, the very special mix of people we are here in this place. It is ideology gone mad to relegate European history, heritage and stories to the one-seventh they call Ngati Pakeha.
"This is a poor form of social engineering that will see, as Te Ahu is already planning, the treasured Far North collection being 'rationalised', the polite word for dispensing with objects that don't fit with the new ideology."
The dismantling, Mr Cotman added, would not only relate to the museum's physical collection.
"I have hugely appreciated the opportunity my position allowed me and I am massively indebted to the volunteers and those active trustees, volunteers in disguise, who have offered so much support and sheer hard effort," he said. "I have watched the children of the Museum Juniors group grow into fine young community-minded youths with opinions of their own. In one sense I know I have betrayed them, for I promised them that they would play a serious part in planning their new museum, a promise made at a time when I believed those on the spot were best placed to undertake such work.
"I have particularly appreciated the co-operation offered the museum by The Northland Age. I know our museum's Press coverage has been the envy of many others.
"I have offered every visitor the warmth of a real Far North greeting and I have adored each and every bright-eyed pre-school and school child as they visited their very own museum. Their excitement and eager questions alone made it all unforgettable for me."