One of the curators of a display of early Maori pen-work says the Maori role in shaping New Zealand's history is often overlooked.
The exhibition, which is on this week at the Auckland City Library, came out of Marsden Fund research into early Maori literacy being done by Kuni Jenkins from Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi and Alison Jones from Auckland University's department of education.
Professor Jones says while the bulk of pre-1840 documents relating to New Zealand were written by Europeans, Maori are excited by seeing the handiwork of tupuna like Hongi Hika.
