Ngāi Tahu Māori Rock Art Trust

The 2008-09 year has been another busy one for the Ngāi Tahu Māori Rock Art Trust, again fully focused on the Trust's key project, the development of the Māori Rock Art Centre in Timaru. As a small flax-roots organisation, the biggest challenge for the Trust has been raising the $2.6m required to complete the project. We have made excellent progress however confirming a further $700,000 throughout the year. This brings the total to just over $2m. Of this $700,000 has been contributed from tribal sources, including grants totaling $400,000 from the Ngāi Tahu Fund. More recently, Te Rūnanga o Waihao Holdings Ltd and Moeraki Ltd have confirmed investments in the project, becoming shareholders in the Māori Rock Art Centre's charitable company, Te Ana Whakairo Ltd. Other contributors include the Ministry of Tourism ($48,577), Canterbury Community Trust ($50,000) and the Timaru District Council who have invested $280,000 in the company.

Although much of the Trust's time and energy has been focused on the Centre, we continue our work in rock art recording and management. Over the past year a number of rock art sites recorded in the 1990s in Ngapara, North Otago, have been revisited to monitor any changes in condition over the past 15 years. Survey work in the Ōpihi catchment has also been completed. The focus for SIMRAP (South Island Māori Rock Art Project) moving forward will be the development of a purpose built database to house its extensive archive of rock art site images and information. From the Trust's perspective, the development of the database is a crucial step in making the results of SIMRAP more accessible, both for management and research purposes, and for wider use throughout the iwi.