Hear about the ingenuity, painstaking work, and team collaboration behind saving the fragile and fast-declining rākau momori – Chatham Islands ancestral carvings on living trees.
Conservator Nirmala Balram discusses rākau momori (also called dendroglyphs), now dwindling in numbers because of disease, tree aging, and changing land use. Carvings from a grove on Rēkohu (Chatham Island) are being rescued by Hokotehi Moriori Trust and organisations including Te Papa. Nirmala outlines each stage, from harvesting live kōpi (karaka) trees, to storing them on a local marae, to conservation work and plans for a dedicated museum.
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