This exhibition focuses on a significant collection of taonga Māori from Tairāwhiti, known as the Campbell Collection. This exhibition highlights the significance of these taonga from Mangatū, and marks an important milestone in the collections history – their return to this region, through the transferal of custodianship from Auckland War Memorial Museum to Tairāwhiti Museum, as requested by iwi and whānau (family) members.

Duncan Campbell and his brother Mackay Campbell gifted the collection to AWMM in 1929. The collection consists of eight intricately carved tao or tara (bird spear points), a carved pare (door lintel) and a number of stone mata (blades), hence the title – tao-ngā pare-mata, inclusive of the types of taonga in the collection and its literal meaning ‘taonga returned’.