A collection of rare Maori letters written during the land wars is going to be put online.
Taranaki iwi have been working with the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington to better understand the historical context of the 250 letters before they are made public.
The library's Maori curator, Paul Diamond, says the letters - collected by Arthur Atkinson, editor of the Taranaki Herald in the 1860s - are very unusual, having been written in Maori to convey military intelligence to other Maori.
Mr Diamond says usually old letters in Maori were written to a person in government or for an anthropologist about particular customs.
The collection will be available online in a few months' time.
