ALONE WE’RE FEATHERS, TOGETHER WE’RE WINGS

Help us protect over 90,000 Hawke’s Bay treasures for generations to come

Something very exciting is underway in Hastings with the development of a new, permanent home for the treasures
and taonga of Hawke’s Bay.

Join Feathers for Hawke’s Bay to show your commitment for future generations.

Over the past 160 years, 90,000+ treasures - some of them over 500 years old - have been assembled by the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust for permanent safe-keeping. This significant regional collection, housed by MTG Hawke’s Bay, represents one of the largest collections of cultural and archival material in Aotearoa New Zealand.

A tired commercial building on the corner of Queen St East and Hastings St North is being transformed into an architectural icon and will be a cornerstone of the arts, culture & hospitality precinct.

The official fundraising campaign to complete the building is in full swing. Everyone in Hawke’s Bay can be part of history by helping us protect our regional treasures. Whether you can donate your own feather or just make a small donation to a collective one - please join us.

Donate Now

Protective Cloak of Huia Feathers

Traditionally, Māori employ a natural cloak for protection comprising Huia, Toroa and Kura feathers.

The outside of the building will be faced in a protective cloak of enormous back-lit Huia ‘feathers’, with 80 panels each 6m high and 0.8m across. The huge and dominating feathers, glowing at night, will turn the building into an iconic Hawke’s Bay landmark.

This striking building will be a permanent repository for our nationally significant collection and, along with its iconic feathers, will outlast this generation well into the future.

While some of the collection will be on display at MTG, most of it needs to be carefully protected so that countless future generations can learn from, understand, enjoy, and treasure the taonga. It’s for this reason – to provide a permanent home for the collection - that a purpose-built research, storage and archive centre is underway.

Donate a Feather

Your Permanent Legacy

Each feather will be individually laser-engraved with a name: be it an individual, couple, family, organisation or business. These 80 names will be preserved - permanently - as part of the building’s very fabric.

Significant donors gain the right to name an exterior panel.

Whether you’re Hawke’s Bay born and raised, or a more recent arrival, ‘owning’ one of the Huia feathers - and having your name permanently laser engraved onto it - presents a unique and very limited opportunity to show that you understand the value of the permanent preservation of our taonga.

Smaller donations will contribute to collective community feathers.

MTG Foundation is a Registered Charity (CC47387) so donations are 33.33% tax-deductible.