The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision) was formed by the amalgamation of three of New Zealand’s major audiovisual archives: the New Zealand Film Archive Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua, Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero, and the Television New Zealand Archive. Between 2012 and 2014 the New Zealand Film Archive and the Sound Archives were integrated, and launched as Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision in August 2014. Also in August 2014, the Television New Zealand Archive was transferred from the broadcaster to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage – it is now managed on a day-to-day basis by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.

Our name, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, represents a continuity between past and present. It draws from the names of the organisations that came together to form this new integrated Archive. It also reflects our commitment to New Zealand’s cultural heritage, the people and places recorded in our collections, the histories and stories told, and the collection objects themselves – all as types of taonga (or treasure). Our logo, with its takarangi double spiral, evokes a waka huia – a box for storing a person’s most prized possessions – while also visually echoing various types of sound and vision: an eye, an ear, a film reel, transmission waves, or a record spinning.

The archive holds a large and diverse collection of moving image and audio items, along with related documentation (publicity materials, stills, posters, production records, props, costumes and equipment). The collections date from 1895 and span our sound and moving image history – from the earliest days of cinema, audio recording and television, to contemporary film, television, advertisements, music videos, computer games and radio productions.

The collections include amateur recordings, public broadcasts and commercially released productions. They present a range of perspectives on what it has meant to be a New Zealander across history.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision adheres to international archiving standards, and is a member of: AMIA (Association of Moving Image Archivists), ARANZ (Archives and Records Association of New Zealand), ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections), ASRA (Australasian Sound Recordings Association), FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film), FIAT (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Television), IASA (International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives), NOHANZ (National Oral History Association of New Zealand), and SEAPAVAA (South East Asia and Pacific Audio-Visual Archives Association).