ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 brings the narrative into the present day with Ngā Paerangi tribal members travelling to Oxford to reconnect with their ancestral heritage at the Pitt Rivers Museum and meet the staff responsible for its care. The unfolding of a museum encounter and all of its complexities is described as is the effects face-to-face encounters have on contemporary relationship development between components of a relational assemblage – an indigenous community and a museum, framed around a collection of indigenous material heritage. A number of entities emerged from the analysis of this assemblage, including ideas of object and indigenous agency, access to cultural knowledge, and authority over decision-making. These results also revealed the disparate cultural perspectives of the two groups and how awareness of these differences can enhance our understanding of the past and present life of the objects for the community and museum.
