Mutunga: Our legacy, Our Challenge, Our Future opened at the main exhibitions gallery on 26 November and runs until 19 March 2012.
Mr Sundgren says that across the country and even in Taranaki, little is known about the tribe and the runanga wanted to display taonga that brings their history alive, and defines who they are.
He says one of the key displays is an eye glass from the ship Rodney that was commandeered by Ngati Mutunga taking hundreds of them to the Chatham Islands in the 1830s and kept by succeeding generations of the runanga.
Mr Sundgren says there are no plans yet to take the exhibition outside Taranaki, but he says it's already started to attract tribal descendants back home, curious to find out what makes them unique.
