Te Pāharakeke - Research Centre

The Reference Collection

Search the reference collection via the Library Catalogue, depending on the title there may also be borrowable or reference copies at Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries branches. 

The extensive range of publications available for use while at Te Ao Mārama Tauranga Library include local history and industry resources, selected central and local government reports and statistics, Aotearoa New Zealand magazines and journals, and reference guides to general topics of local and educational value.

Māori Reference Collection

Search the Māori reference collection via the Library Catalogue, depending on the title there may also be borrowable copies at Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries branches.

With a focus on the Māori history of our rohe Tauranga Moana, resources include the Tauranga Māori Land Court Minute Books, historical reports commissioned to provide context for the Tauranga claims to the Waitangi Tribunal, family histories and references from the Bay of Plenty Times. Alongside an extensive range of publications by and about Māori. 

Family History Collection

Search the family history collection via the Library Catalogue, depending on the title there may also be borrowable or reference copies at Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries branches.

See our Genealogy Assistance page for more information about genealogy and whakapapa research support and resources. 

Joyce West Collection 

Joyce Tarlton West (1908-1985) was a New Zealand novelist and children’s writer. The books in the collection were donated to Te Ao Mārama Tauranga City Libraries after her death in Tauranga in 1985. Now regularly updated, titles include winners of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and worthy New Zealand and Bay of Plenty authors that are out of print.

Joyce West was born in Auckland, travelling with her parents through much of the North Island as they taught in remote Māori schools. Joyce described her father as a terrific story-teller and avid reader. Books were precious in the backblocks, where the only contact with the outside world was through rural mail delivery. Joyce’s parents encouraged a love of books within the family, and more important, a love of words.

Ngā Kete Wānanga 

(Tāne and the three baskets of knowledge) 

Master carver Tuti Tūkaokao created Ngā Kete Wānanga (Tāne and the three baskets of knowledge) in 1989, which can be viewed on the wall in He Puna Wānanga. 

The work tells the story of how Tāne, the progenitor of mankind, of the forests and all the creatures of the forest, ascended to the uppermost realm, occupied only by lo-Matua-Kore, God-the-Parentless. There Tāne retrieved the three baskets of knowledge; ko te Kete Tuauri (darkness), ko te Kete Tuatea (light), and ko te Kete Aronui (pursuit obtained the three baskets of knowledge. He returned to Earth with the knowledge and created humankind from the Earth.