A visiting New Zealand family yesterday returned Cook Islands artefacts owned by their forefather, entrusting them to the Cook Islands Library and Museum Society for future generations of Cook Islanders.

Nestled along the drive of Makea Tinirau Road is the Cook Islands Library and Museum Society, a private organisation dedicated to the preservation of the history and culture of the Cook Islands, entirely run and funded by resilient volunteers whose passion for the country has kept many of the artefacts for posterity.

Yesterday morning, Cook Islands artefacts – a spear and three paddles – were gifted to the Society by the Wheeler family from the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. The family is on holiday in Rarotonga.

The artefacts were owned by the late Ernest Wheeler who was the manager of the Are Manuiri (now Banana Court) in the 1920s. He lived in Port Chalmers and United Kingdom before coming to the Cook Islands.

Jean Mason, curator-manager of the Cook Islands Library and Museum Society, said Linda Wheeler – the widow of Trevor Wheeler (1945-2013) who was the grandson of Ernest Wheeler – made the arrangements to gift the items to the Society.

The Wheeler family from Aotearoa New Zealand gifted Cook Islands artefacts (three paddles and a spear) to the Cook Islands Library and Museum Society. 23061418

The Cook Islands Library and Museum Society are grateful for any old and authentic Cook Islands artefacts that are returned to the country of origin, says Mason.

She said that many of the items have been cared for by families of the ancestors that first took them away and the descendants who inherited the items have put a lot of faith in the Society to continue to take good care of the items for the benefit of future generations of Cook Islanders.

“The Cook Islands Library and Museum Society always takes seriously its main purpose for existing, which is to enable the survival of the country’s material cultural heritage for the benefit of future generations,” said Mason.

Tim Buchanan, president of the Society, said that they have been the recipient and custodians of many authentic Cook Islands artefacts.

“Objects from before and after European contact are among our collection,” Buchanan said.

“The Society are grateful to the Wheeler family for thinking of us and for going to the trouble of repatriating these items gifted to their forefather. Items that are now artefacts from those early colonial days of our history.”

The Cook Islands Library and Museum Society is a private, non-profit organisation that was founded in 1963.

Buchanan said: “Although the Society is an autonomous, non-profit organisation, we did benefit from Government support up until 1992.”

“That support was withdrawn by the Geoffrey Henry Government of the day in a pique of anger over being denied full control of the Society and the grounds gifted for their purposes by Makea Nui Teremoana Ariki.”

The Society now mostly survives with individual and corporate donations and volunteer labour.

“It is our sincere hope that current and future governments will again assist us with this custodial duty, in recognition of the importance of preserving the tangible objects of our history,” said Buchanan.