Te Awamutu Museum, now closed in Roche Street and relocated to 55 Rickit Road.
Te Awamutu Museum Trust board chair Dean Taylor has revealed the trust will soon work with the council to “further rationalise” its collection so it is “fit for purpose” for the new $27 million Te Ara Wai Museum.
In a verbal presentation to the Te Ara Wai governance committee last week, Taylor said the trust’s role was to approve the acquisition and deaccession of items.
It also approves loans from the collection it owns on behalf of the community. One example was when it loaned Uenuku, an early Māori carving valued at millions of dollars, for a Tainui exhibition at Te Papa.
The News asked the council whether there is any legal agreement between the council and the trust other than a 1987 trust deed and an old Memorandum of Understanding.
This week the council provided two more documents, both from 2005 – a Memorandum of Understanding and a Trust Deed prepared by council’s legal advisor Gallie Miles. The same legal firm told the trust board in 2017 the Memorandum of Understanding and Trust Deed “no longer accurately reflects” the relationship between council and the board.
Customer and Community services group manager Sally Sheedy told The News the 1987 deed was not an agreement between council and the trust.
The earlier deed required the trust to prepare and produce an annual report and statement of accounts which should be delivered to the council.
“We can only assume that reference in the 1987 Deed of Trust to the provision of reports to council was inserted because 36 years ago, the trust operated the museum directly, and received funds from council for doing so. This is no longer the case,” said Sheedy.
The 2005 deed was an agreement between council and the trust and it did not require the delivery of an annual report or accounts, she said.
The Memorandum of Understanding required the trust board to circulate board meeting minutes to the council.
The council earlier provided two letters from Taylor – one a letter of support for a funding application during Covid and the other in 2018 to then mayor Jim Mylchreest saying the trust agreed “in principle” to housing the collection in a new museum.
Neither appear to be legal agreements. Sheedy said access to the collection was not solely based on the two letters.
“There is a much more formal framework for the relationship and that framework has been in place over many years.”
However, Sheedy said as the project moved into a new phase: “we’re happy to look at further formalising the arrangement. That’s something we’ll need to discuss with the trust board.”
