Hawke’s Bay Museum: Napier’s MTG to be renamed as Kahukura, Amokura chosen for Hastings storage site

New names have been approved for the MTG, which will become Kahukura Hawke’s Bay Museum, and the new storage, research and archive building in Hastings, which will be named Amokura Hawke’s Bay Museum.

Hawke’s Bay Museum’s MTG Napier building and its new storage, research and archive building in Hastings have been given new names.

The MTG will become Kahukura, while the Hastings building will be Amokura.

They will collectively be named Hawke’s Bay Museum.

Museum director Laura Vodanovich said that when the Hastings building on Queen St East opened, it was clear the two buildings should have a single name, with a way to distinguish them.

“Hawke’s Bay Museum is the name that brings it all together,” Vodanich said.

“Each building will have its own name gifted by mana whenua, namely Ngahiwi Tomoana and Ngāti Hori.”

She said each space had its role - one was for the public to experience the art, objects and taonga in the collection while the other was a place for quiet, behind-the-scenes work, preserving, researching, archiving, and keeping the collection safe.

Papers in Napier City Council’s agenda for Thursday’s meeting revealed the names were first proposed at a public-excluded Napier City Council Hawke’s Bay Museum joint working group update on July 31, 2025.

The agenda said the item was public-excluded while waiting on confirmation of name endorsements from a subsequent Hastings District Council August 7 meeting.

The names were, at that stage, still going through the legal process of registration with the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ).

All key stakeholders and IPONZ have now approved the names.

The agenda said a robust process was used to generate cultural narrative for the names, and they offered opportunities to strengthen relationships and build wider recognition for the work and value of this important cultural asset for the region.

All costs so far have been included in either the shared project’s budget for the construction of the Hastings building or the operational costs of MTG.

The $23 million Hastings museum storage and research centre was built in Hastings to house tens of thousands of artefacts, artworks and taonga.

It was funded by the Government ($9m), NZ Lotteries Commission ($5.5m), Hastings District Council ($4.6m), Napier City Council ($3.1m), and the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust (which raised $750,000).

On the west side of the building is a two-storey space for offices, education and research, by appointment.

On the east is a storage building designed to care for the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust collection.

The entire collection is valued at about $43 million and comprises more than 90,000 items – some more than 500 years old.

The MTG name has been around since 2013, when, after a redevelopment costing around $18m, the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery was renamed.

It was a simplified reference to the three key elements of the Napier institution - Museum, Theatre and Gallery.

Vodanovich said they would slowly replace the MTG branding, while being mindful of resources.

“Our priority is getting the beautiful new building in Hastings open and ready for people to make an appointment to visit.

“It’s not a walk-in museum as we have in Napier, but there will be opportunities for the public to see what happens inside.”

Local artist Rakai Karaitiana has started developing visual concepts for the new names.

The working group’s report on the new names will be presented to Napier councillors at their meeting tomorrow.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.