Author Archives:

Matau: traditional hooks

9 October 2012 – 8.21am

The exhibition Matau: Traditional hooks, innovative designs, closes at the end of November. Next Monday, Te Papa’s Chris Paulin, curator for the exhibition, will be giving an illustrated talk on the intriguing story of matau, and how Māori quickly integrated European tools and technologies with the traditional matau form that had served them so well.

Traditional bone hooks were used to catch large quantities of fish. As some of the hooks were more efficient than steel hooks, the designs have recently been adopted by present-day fishers. ME004877. Copyright Te Papa.

Whilst early European explorers considered the traditional matau ‘ill-made’ and ‘of doubtful efficacy’, in fact, the design was sophisticated and highly effective, as modern-day fishers have recently rediscovered.

The exhibition features several exquisite examples of contemporary hei matau made from pounamu, ivory, and wood: sturdy bone hooks big enough to land a shark, and delicate double-barbed rotating hooks made to catch small-mouthed fish. There are trolling lures fashioned from pāua shell, and slender matau toroa – hooks designed especially for catching albatross.

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/exhibitions/Pages/MatauTraditionalhooks.aspx

Monday’s talk will describe how, without the technology to extract metal, Māori originally made fish hooks from wood, bone, stone, and shell. European introduction of metals led to the loss of the traditional techniques and  bone and stone matau were initially discarded but soon acquired new significance as highly collectible artefacts and, more recently, as personal adornment and symbols of cultural revival.

Matau: Traditional hooks, innovative designs 
When: Monday 15 October 2012,  10.30am–12noon
Where: Te Papa
Cost: Friends of Te Papa $15, Guest $20 (includes refreshments)

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Matau: traditional hooks, innovative design

29 November 2010 – 10.47am

Bone matau. Copyright Te Papa. ME009305

An exhibition of Mäori fish-hooks (matau) made from wood, bone, stone, and shell opens at Te Papa on Saturday December 4th.

While early European explorers considered these fish-hooks to be ‘ill-made’ and ‘of doubtful efficacy’, research has shown that the design was highly effective.

Unlike modern steel hooks, the Mäori hooks were attached with fishing line tied to a groove at right angles to the direction of the point. This caused the hook to rotate, trapping the fish’s jawbone rather than piercing the fish.

Composite hook. Oldman Collection. Copyright Te Papa. OL000105

Bones from giant moa and stranded whales could be used to make large hooks, but bone alone was not strong enough to catch big fish, such as shark and groper. Hooks targeting these species incorporated additional materials for greater strength and large hooks were constructed with strong wooden kauawhi (shanks) made from dried saplings or branches, with stout bone or shell points.

Pä kahawai. Copyright Te Papa. ME013868

As well as hooks, Māori used a range of trolling lures to catch fish. All were dragged behind canoes without bait, but they differed in design and materials depending on the fish being targeted. Oceanic fish such as tuna and kingfish were caught with pā, straight lures with the line extending along the shank. Pohau mangā were long wooden lures; the line sat protected within a groove at the tip, making them ideal for fish such as barracouta whose sharp teeth could easily cut a flax line. Smaller coastal fish were caught with pā kahawai, curved lures traditionally made from a pāua shell rim and sometimes decorated with feathers.

Europeans introduced Māori to metal fishing hooks in the late eighteenth century. The new materials and tools were quickly embraced and old matau were thrown away, and the wooden and flax components soon decomposed.

Meanwhile, bone and stone matau acquired new significance as highly collectible artefacts. To meet the growing demand from collectors and tourists replica matau were made in large numbers by Māori, and also by European forgers.

Hei Matau. Copyright Te Papa. ME015518

The first Europeans observed Māori wearing fish-hooks as pendants, but for essentially practical reasons. Traditional Māori garments lacked pockets, so small tools – including matau – were often worn on a string around the neck for safe-keeping. If the tool was made from sought-after pounamu, the pendant had extra value beyond the functional. In recent years, stylised fish-hooks made of bone, ivory, or pounamu (greenstone) have become popular as pendants. Many wearers not only appreciate the beauty of these ‘hei matau’, but also value them as potent symbols of Māori cultural renaissance.

Posted in Exhibitions, Fish, Māori | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

Skeletons in the closet

8 April 2010 – 3.22pm

There has been some debate about the pose of the mounted skeleton of Phar Lap on display at Te Papa. Using digital photographs, an image of the skeleton has been superimposed over photos of Phar Lap and used to “prove” that the skeleton  has been mounted incorrectly.

http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/pharlap-168.shtml

Unfortunately, the image of the skeleton that has been used was taken with a wide-angle lens. As wide-angle lenses tend to exaggerate the size of objects closest to the lens this results in considerable distortion (known as parallax error), and the ribcage is out of proportion to the rest of the skeleton. To compare the skeleton it is essential to use an image from a camera with a lens the same as that used for the original photograph.

Phar lap and skeleton.

When the two images from cameras with lenses of similar focal length are combined it is apparent that the skeleton is not so badly mounted after all! Even in this combined image the lenses used were not exactly the same, so the two images cannot be aligned.

The skeleton was mounted in the 1930s after public donations raised sufficient funds to employ two taxidermists. The value of Phar lap’s skeleton is as a historical object rather than an anatomical specimen.

Should the skeleton be dismantled and reconstructed in a pose that we today consider to be “correct”?  There may be some imperfections in the way the skeleton was mounted – but this is part of the story of Phar Lap. We wouldn’t erase the cigarette out of a Rita Angus painting simply because today smoking isn’t fashionable.

Museums preserve and look after objects for future generations – and that does not include altering them fit our twenty-first century perceptions.

Posted in Exhibitions, History, Mammals | Tagged | Comments (4)

A new giant squid specimen!

3 April 2009 – 8.56am

A three-metre giant squid specimen washed up on a beach on Wellington’s South Coast yesterday (2nd April).

In comparison with our colossal squid it’s a bit small, but because it’s small it’s interesting! Find out about the difference between Colossal and Giant squid.

The squid was found in shallow water by Alana Spragg and her daughter Bella who managed to drag it onto the beach. At just 3m long the squid is one of the smallest we’ve seen: this means that it is either a rarely seen male , or an even more rarely seen juvenile.

Collection manager of molluscs at Te Papa, Bruce Marshall noted that out of the last 50 giant squid we have received; only one has been a male.  The actual sex ratio is about 50:50, however,  as collectors favour the larger the largest specimens, which are invariably females. Juvenile giant squid are also rare in New Zealand waters – we don’t know where they go after they hatch and before they return to the breeding areas off the South Island.

Te papa's freezer - giant squid and other specimens awaiting processing.

Te papa's freezer - giant squid and other specimens awaiting processing.

The giant squid has been put in a freezer and will eventually be preserved for display. It is in fantastic condition – It looks like it has probably only been dead for a couple of hours. Its skin is perfect and the eyes, tentacles and beak all appear to be intact. The preservation process will start in about two months, because the preparation laboratory at Te Papa is being renovated.

The squid was reported in this morning’s newspaper:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/2311472/Giant-no-match-for-colossal-cousin

Posted in Colossal squid, Exhibitions | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Valentines day: roses are what?

12 February 2009 – 10.53am

 

Margaret Stoddart, Roses, 1920s

Margaret Stoddart, Roses, 1920s

In Europe during the 1300s February 14th was thought to be the day when birds paired off to mate. This date was originally an ancient Greco-Roman pagan festival, and was later called St Valentines Day Feast by the Church. Since the 1300s, on February 14th each year, roses (and flowers in general),  have been widely accepted as gifts and Saint Valentines Day is now celebrated by many cultures in different parts of the world.  The art collection at Te Papa houses numerous paintings of roses and other flowers – for example Margaret Stoddart’s watercolour still life of roses.

The natural history collections at Te Papa also include many specimens of flowering plants (Angiosperms). However, in order to preserve them, these specimens are pressed and dried, and consequently loose the colour and beauty of the fresh flowers. Some of the oldest specimens in our collections were obtained by the naturalists who visited New Zealand during the voyages of Captain James Cook in the late 1700s.

Jersey cudweed. Specimen collected by Joseph Banks Oct. 1769

 This specimen of jersey cudweed or pukatea (at left),  was collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on 8th October 1769 shortly after the Endeavour arrived in New Zealand waters and sailed into a bay at the entrance of a small river in Tuuranga-nui (today’s Poverty Bay, near modern Gisborne).

Storing these specimens provides an invaluable resource for scientific research, and the flowers are very important in determining the relationships between different species. However, the giving of flowers on Valentines Day raises an interesting question, as flowers are the sexual organs of plants!

What exactly is the meaning behind severing the sexual organs from a plant and giving them to a friend? 

Sexual organs of animals are frequently used in traditional medicines and sold as aphrodisiacs – particularly the dried and ground-up remains of bacula (or penis bones), from seals, bears and other canines. However, presenting somebody with the severed sexual organs of a small mammal probably wouldn’t win many friends!

collection manager Anton van Helden and friend

Collection Manager Anton van Helden alongside a stranded male pygmy blue whale.

For that matter, consider the reaction of presenting a lover with the sexual organs of a large mammal! Even the simple logistics of presenting such a large gift may not win over the object of one’s affection?

 

Meanwhile, James Cook continued his voyages of discovery, and Banks and the other naturalists collected many specimens of flowering plants which are still held in the collections at Te Papa and in other museums in Europe.  

Valentines Day is also remembered for other reasons – on February 14th 1779, the Endeavour arrived in at Kealakekua Bay, Hawai’i, where during an altercation with local natives, James Cook was clubbed and stabbed to death. Perhaps he should have brought flowers.

Posted in Art, Bugs, insects and spiders, Collections Online, Exhibitions, History, Plants, Whales | Comments (1)

The deluge and the ark

4 February 2009 – 10.10am

The lower jaw of a tuatara (sphenodon). Three teeth are visible along the top. This was the first fossil bone found at St Bathans. Image copyright Te Papa

Recently, a group of researchers in New Zealand suggested that the absence of fossils between 25 and 22 million years ago indicated that the islands completely disappeared under water, and then later re-emerged. But a newly discovered fossil reptile suggests this theory does not hold water. Alan Tennyson, Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at Te Papa, and colleagues, found the remains of a fossilized reptile jaw at St Bathans in Otago.

Curator of Fossil Vertebrates, Alan Tennyson, excavating the St Bathans site in Otago. Image copyright Te Papa

Curator of Fossil Vertebrates, Alan Tennyson, excavating the St Bathans site in Otago. Image copyright Te Papa

The teeth in the fossil jaw and their wear patterns is unique to the tuatara and its ancestors. But what is most exciting about Alan’s fossil is its age: it dates to just 3 million years after a time when other researchers have suggested the land mass sank beneath the waves.

After the ancestral New Zealand continent broke away from Australia and Antarctica, it drifted northwards and, due to a combination of tectonic movements and rising sea-levels, the total land area shrank considerably, but just how small the land area was reduced to is open to debate.

If the entire land area was submerged, the ancestral tuatara discovered by Alan and his colleagues, and all of New Zealand’s biodiversity, could only have arrived after the land re-emerged. To do this, the ancient reptile would have had to cross vast oceans – an unlikely feat for an animal that is a poor swimmer that would have rapidly dehydrated in salt water.

It’s not just the tuatara fossil that suggests New Zealand did not fully drown.

There are many different species in the St Bathans fossil deposit – about 24 species of birds, as well as plants, insects, and freshwater fish. There is no evidence that these species lived in Australia at the time, and most would not have been able to survive a lengthy sea journey. This suggests that ancient New Zealand did not disappear, but remained as an isolated island chain, allowing many species to survive and then repopulate as the continental crust re-emerged.

Reference: Jones, M, E.H.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, J.; Evans, S.E.; Worthy, T.H. (2009). A sphenodontine (Rhynchocephalia) from the Miocene of New Zealand and paleobiogeography of the tuatara (Sphenodon). Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Posted in Fossils, Reptiles | Tagged | Comments (3)

Shrinkage?

26 November 2008 – 9.32am

Many people have asked us why the colossal squid specimen was so much smaller than anticipated when we thawed it. Initial reports suggested that the specimen was considerably larger than the final measurement of 4.2 metres in total length.

We suspected that the specimen had shrunk (rather than the size being greatly exaggerated!). In order to test our theory we purchased several fresh arrow squid from a local fish shop and subjected them to a series of treatments to see if we could shrink them, and by how much.

Preserved squid - shrunk to size! © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

Preserved squid - shrunk to size! © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

All of the squid were approximately the same size: between 610-620 mm in total length. The first specimen we carefully preserved in a weak formalin solution over several days. Despite carefully increasing the concentration slowly, this specimen (top squid in the photo) shrank by around 5%. The lower specimen was placed directly into 100% ethanol, which caused the tissues to dehydrate rapidly. As a result the mantle shrank by around 20%, while the head and arms shrank nearly 25%

We think that the year-long storage in the freezer before we thawed the colossal squid allowed it to dessicate (“freezer burn”) and contributed to its shrinkage before it was even preserved in formalin. Assuming the amount of shrinkage was similar for the fresh arrow squids and the colossal squid in the freezer and then formalin, the original length would have been well over 6 metres!

Posted in Colossal squid | Comments (0)

A moving experience

24 November 2008 – 8.09am

With less than a month to go until our squid meets her adoring fans, there is still much to be done behind the scenes, not least of which is trying to figure out the best way of getting a 2.5 tonne display tank – squid included – from its storage facility across town, to its final resting place here at Te Papa. As the Exhibition Preparator assigned to the exhibition, it is my job to not only manage the installation of the show, but also to make sure the colossal squid and its tank arrive on site safely and in one piece.

Normally, moving a 2.5 tonne object wouldn’t be too much trouble, however, this project has raised a few logistical issues one doesn’t normally have to deal with. For starters, now that the specimen has been moved from her storage tank to the display tank, she has to stay there, which means we have to support her as much as possible throughout the operation and stop her from moving about too much – every time the specimen moves there is the a risk of tearing the flesh.

copy-of-move-019

The two tonne display tank being delivered to Te Papa. Moving it from the laboratories to the Cable St galleries with an additional 0.5 tonne of squid and liquid will be a major exercise carried out in the dead of the night. © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

Added to this, we have to keep a small amount of liquid – about 200mm – in the tank. This is to keep her slightly supported and to stop her from sticking to the floor of the tank so that if she does move at all, she won’t be torn in two! While this helps to keep the squid buoyant, it doesn’t make transporting it any easier as we have to lift the whole thing onto a truck using a crane – a tricky operation under good conditions, a very risky operation when liquid is sloshing back and forth and throwing the balance off centre… kind of like trying to lift a see-saw in motion.

Because we don’t want the squid or the liquid to move too much, we made the decision to try to keep the tank as horizontal as possible. The problem is we have to drive down a street with a 20 degree gradient and navigate a 10 degree ramp before getting into the gallery. This issue alone has consumed many weeks of discussion, raised many bright ideas, and kept many engineers, crane operators, forklift operators, and designers busy trying to find the best solution. It’s resulted in a few sleepless nights too.

For a while there, it seemed as if every solution came with a whole new set of problems, and finally I decided that the best approach was the simplest – if we couldn’t avoid the slope of the road, we could control the speed at which it was taken. This first meant having a chat with the local council to find out what exactly were the implications of a very large truck rolling very, very slowly through four signalled intersections without having to stop for red lights. Well, the implications were big. One of those intersections, it turns out, is part of the state highway – this meant having to contract a traffic management firm to deal with obtaining permits at national as well as local level, and it also meant arranging a police escort, as the NZ Police are the only ones legally allowed to stop traffic at state highway intersections. Even with the police on board, this type of rolling closure can have a serious impact on the city’s traffic flow which we, and the council, want to minimise as much as possible, which means the whole operation has to happen in the dead of night.

So, what does it take to move a colossal squid across town? One very big crane, a climate controlled truck with adjustable shock absorbers, two forklifts, a traffic management firm, a police escort, and the good will of the Wellington City Council and Transit NZ.

In two weeks, we’ll know if all our planning will pay off – I hope so because with a move like this, you only get one shot, and no-one wants to be the guy that dropped the colossal squid!

Hutch Wilco

Exhibitions Preparator

Posted in Colossal squid, Exhibitions | Tagged , | Comments (3)

Mounting a squid

21 October 2008 – 1.06pm

Work is underway preparing the mounting system for the colossal squid in its display tank.

Mark kent and Robert Clendon preparing the squid for exhibition. Image copyright Te Papa

Mark kent and Robert Clendon preparing the squid for exhibition. Image copyright Te Papa

Unless the squid is supported by acrylic mounts it will remain a collapsed heap on the bottom of the tank – not very appealling!

To display it in as realistic pose as possible a series of supports will be manufactured to splay the tentacles out so the beak can be seen, and to expand the mantle from its collapsed position.

The squid will be slightly angled to one side in the tank, so it will be possible to see the eye and even the funnel, which is on the under side of the mantle. lighting inside the tank will illuminate the specimen from the sides – eliminating any glare or reflection from the surface of the preservative.

Te Papa conservators Mark Kent and Robert Clendon have to work with the specimen partially supported by the liquid preservative. The arms are held in the desired position using plastic food wrap while they prepare the template. The template will then be used to cut the final acrylic mount. Once the templates are completed and the mounts made, the specimen will be moved to the museum building at Cable Street and mounted properly, before the lid is placed on the tank it is filled with the preservative solution.

Preparing the template. Image copyright Te Papa

Preparing the mount template. Image copyright Te Papa

 

Museum conservators and mount makers have to deal with objects ranging from artefacts to fine art sculptures. The colossal squid is a new challenge!
Posted in Colossal squid | Comments (2)

Swimming with cockatoos?

17 October 2008 – 9.02am

As part of our exhibition we want to ‘bring the squid to life’. So we’re developing an animation to give you an idea of how the squid lives and how it swims.  Only problem is– nobody has ever seen a live colossal squid swimming, so nobody knew what it would look like!

So it was over to the Te Papa scientists to come up with a hypothesis of how the squid swims and to explain it to the animators and designers.

Cranchiids or glass squids

The scientists looked at how other closely related squids swim. There are many videos of other squid species swimming, including the family Cranchiidae or glass squids, to which the colossal squid belongs. 

Cranchiids or glass squids have a very different morphology or outward appearance to most squid. With their binocular vision and forward directed eyes they cannot hold their arms out directly in front as in most squid.

Cockatoo position or not?

Cranchiids therefore hold their arms either up over their heads (“cockatoo” position) or downwards (“reverse cockatoo” position). You can see this in an underwater video from the NOAA Oceanexplorer website.

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/04etta/logs/aug26/media/bathyscaphoid_squid_video.html

There is an on-going debate around whether the colossal squid swims in the “cockatoo” position or “reverse cockatoo”.  Because of the differences in body morphology between Cranchiids and other squids, we know that the colossal squid does not swim with its arms held flat (unless it is about to attack a prey item).

Most other squids have the eyes placed on the sides of the head – this means that they do not have to lift their arms out of their field of vision and can swim with the arms flat. You can see this in the following video:

By carefully measuring the length of the arms the scientists were able to determine how the arms would be held if all the tips were together.                                   

Measuring the colossal squid. Image Copyright Te Papa

Measuring the colossal squid. Image Copyright Te Papa

For example if the arms are held upwards, then the lower arms would be longer as they would have to reach further to meet the tips of the upper arms, as well as examining the positioning and direction of the non-swivelling hooks, it was possible to come up with a hypothesis that the “cockatoo” position was used by our specimen. 

As no one has ever seen a Colossal Squid actually swimming, all we can do is put forward a hypothesis, aka educated guess, based on what we know about other types of squid.

This is the process of science!

Posted in Colossal squid | Tagged | Comments (1)
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 274 other followers