1919–1923 Dominion Museum ethnological expeditions

He wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs saying, "It was all very well collecting and defining words in a dictionary, but that didn’t very well serve a culture that had embedded its wisdom, traditions, and history in the nuances of spoken language rather than in literature."

[6] The four expeditions were across Te Ika-a-Māui, Aotearoa (North Island, New Zealand) and visited Gisborne, Rotorua, the Whanganui River region and Tairāwhiti / East Coast.

Recording iwi and hapū around the North Island they captured knowledge of a range of fishing techniques, art forms like weaving, kōwhaiwhai, kapa haka, mōteatea, ancestral rituals and everyday life in the communities they visited.

[9] Johannes Andersen and James McDonald accompanied Elsdon Best on these expeditions and they were assisted at each venue by person's expert in Māori custom who could smooth the way for the Recordist.

Dictaphone recordings were made of waiata, pātere ("songs of derision in response to slander"[12]), and karakia, but the excitement of the occasion was such that most were too busy to talk with the group from the Dominion Museum.

[14] Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision holds some of the films James McDonald made from the First Dominion Museum Ethnology Expedition.