[2] The pā was deserted around 1830 when the majority of Te Āti Awa moved to the Wellington region and Kāpiti Coast.

It initially was run from the premises of a school on Vivian Street, then in October 1852 moved to an auction room on Devon St.

It was renamed the Literary Institute in 1856, but had no funding to build a permanent home for some years, and much of its collection was destroyed in a fire in 1859.

The institute and library occupied the ground floor of the newly built Provincial Council Town Hall building in 1865, but despite paying no rent it fell into debt and was dissolved in 1878, although the reading room remained.

[7] An annex was eventually built behind the Carnegie Library at a cost of £3,000; the old Town Hall exhibits were moved there in 1918, and the Skinner collection in 1919.

[8] The library was reorganised on a Dewey system in 1922, and the headquarters of the Polynesian Society moved to Wellington in 1925, creating more space.

In 1927 contention over the ownership and display of two Māori treasures – the anchor stone of the Tokomaru canoe and the adze used in its construction – was resolved in a meeting between museum administration and representatives of three iwi.

[1][9] In front of Puke Ariki is a 2001 carved pou (pole), Tukotahi/Standing Together, depicting the first meeting of Māori and Pākehā settlers in Taranaki.

[13] The founding museum collections donated by William Skinner were well-documented Māori taonga (treasures), including a rare dogskin cloak (huruhuru kurī).

[18] Ortiz took them out of New Zealand, violating laws on the export of national treasures, then in 1978 attempted to sell them to recoup a ransom he had paid for his kidnapped daughter.

[18] After many years of negotiation and Ortiz's death in 2013, the New Zealand government paid $4.5 million to have them returned, and in March 2014 they were deposited in Puke Ariki under a guardianship arrangement agreed to by the Crown, Te Āti Awa, and Ngāti Rahiri.

[25] Kelvin Day, who started at Taranaki Museum in 1992, and had been Manager Heritage Collections since 2008, was appointed Director in March 2013.

[28] As well as pinned specimens from the Ken Fox collection, it featured live cockroaches, stick insects, centipedes, and spiders.