Elisha Rolleston

2022 recipient of the Sir Hugh Kawharu Auckland Museum Scholarship.

Elisha Rolleston

The Museum Scholarship for 2022 was awarded to Elisha Rolleston (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngā Te Rangi, Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāti Awa, Whakatōhea, Te Whānau a Apanui) to support his studies for a Master of Arts in Māori and Indigenous Studies course at the University of Waikato. His research, titled “He piringa rākau, he piringa whakairo, he piringa mana Motuhake”, is a critical examination of the role of pou whakairo (carvings) in Tutereinga wharenui in terms of their functional ability to transmit intergenerational knowledge. Elisha has explained that ‘heritage objects preserved, made accessible, and displayed in Auckland Museum are all vessels of Mātauranga Māori that tell stories and whakapapa. Auckland Museum has an extensive taonga Māori collection with a significant number of carved items.

Elisha is an emerging professional with a young family currently working at Tauranga City Libraries in the Heritage and Research team as the Mātanga Taonga Tuku Iho (Māori Heritage Specialist). His role is to manage the preservation, access, display, digitization, and research of the taonga Māori (Māori collections) in their archives. Outside of this role he is heavily involved with his hapū and iwi in Tauranga Moana facilitating mau rākau/mau taiaha wānanga throughout the marae in Tauranga Moana. He has been involved with research projects such as Tai Whananake a Te Ao Māori localized curriculum for all Tauranga Moana schools to learn the local stories and history of the region. He has facilitated cultural competency wānanga and workshops on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Tikanga Māori, and Mātauranga Māori. In his application Elisha noted that it has been a dream of his to migrate from Archives to Museums and it is projected for a museum to be built in Tauranga Moana in the near future.