Ko Horouta te waka, ko Papatu te maunga, ko Te Arai te awa, ko Ohako te marae, ko Ngāi Tawhiri me Ngāi Te Kete ngā hapu, Ko Rongowhakaata me Ngāti Ruapani ngā iwi. Originally from Gisborne, on the East Coast of New Zealand, my whānau and I now reside on the lands of Boon Wurrung/Bunurong peoples. It is hard to single out the exact moment, when I knew I was 'into' cultural heritage - it has always been a part of my life. Memories of running my hands over the carved grooves of my ancestors in our tipuna whare | ancestral house as a child, or tracing my fingers over the smooth flax surface of the tukutuku panels | ornamental lattice-work beside them, are always present. The stories that my grandfather shared of his childhood in India and listening to my kaumatua |elders recite our family genealogies have inherently shaped who I am, and influenced my career, to this day. I founded Tiaki Objects Conservation as a community-centred conservation practice, committed to service that impacts lives through collaboration, engagement and creating space for active conversations with our cultural sector clients. We help others care for their taonga and cultural collections. We are a specialist conservation provider of Objects and Natural Science Collections conservation, preventive conservation and, museum and conservation storage services, throughout Melbourne, Victoria and Australia. We have over 10 years of "hands-on" experience, serving museums and galleries, conservation and heritage organisations, professional sports clubs, national museums associations, local government and archives & community heritage groups.
