In 2013 when the Cook Islands audiovisual collection was deposited with Nga Taonga Sound and Vision in Wellington New Zealand the immediate need was to halt the deterioration of the collection with storage in a controlled vault environment at Nga Taonga. Nga Taonga is committed to assisting Pacific audiovisual archives.
The staff of the Cook Islands Ministry of Cultural Development have made three visits to Nga Taonga in 2014, 2018 and 2020 to accession all 6446 items of Cook Islands Audiovisual collection with a total of 195 collection items digitised to date.
While the Covid 19 Pandemic in 2020 impacted progress accessioning was achieved in August 2020.MOCD, with approval from the Cook Island’s government, is currently seeking inclusion of the sovereign Cook Islands Audiovisual collection, in New Zealand’s 4 year magnetic media digital preservation project – UTAINA.Simultaneously MOCD in partnership with Nga Taonga is developing a Preservation Plan and exploring funding options to preserve over 3,000 items requiring intensive preservation prior to digitisation in the Utaina project.
The conservation process supported with Nga Taonga resources and expertise may provide learning opportunities for Cook Islanders interested in preservation skills.
