Te Papa's Blog

Pataka Museum is about to open another exciting show on 13 November 2011. The exhibition, called Germany and Samoa – Old Ties and New Relationships, investigates the impact and legacy of the profoundly significant historical relationship between Germany and Samoa from 1900 – 1914. The exhibition will feature photos, artefacts, and information collected and curated by Professor Hermann Hiery, a leading expert on the colonial era in the Pacific. It is co-curated by Helen Kedgley at Pataka, and this is the first ever exhibition of its kind in the world.  The exhibition will run alongside a showcase of paintings and sculptures by renowned Pacific artist Michael Tuffery.

Part of Germany and Samoa – Old Ties and New Relationships, will be several significant objects from Te Papa.

Sextant, 1916, New Zealand. von Zatorski, Walter. Gift of the Minister of Defence, 1918. Te Papa

This sextant (navigational instrument), for example, was made in 1917 by German merchant marine cadet, Walter von Zatorski. At the time, he was interned as a prisoner of war on Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf, about 11 kilometres northeast of Auckland.  He had been captured when New Zealand forces took the Pacific Island of German Samoa (now the Independent State of Samoa) during World War I (1914 – 1918).
The sextant and its case are totally improvised. They were made using the fuel tank from a Primus stove and the brass hinges from a rudder that had washed ashore. The adjusting screw came from the handle of a safety razor. Von Zatorski ordered tools and solder through the camp canteen to assemble the instrument.

In December 1917, von Zatorski’s sextant was put to use when a party of prisoners, lead by Count Felix von Luckner (‘Sea Wolf’), escaped from Motuihe and captured the scow Moa. Using von Zatorski’s handmade instrument and a map copied from a school atlas, the men navigated an accurate course to the Kermadec Islands – around 1000 kilometres northeast of New Zealand – before they were recaptured.

You will be able to visit the exhibition at Pataka Museum until 19 February 2012.

“In these rooms you will hear the stories of our people: our origins across the Pacific, our arrival in Aotearoa, and the life we created over many generations. You will meet the leaders, heroes and guardians who have shaped who we are today. And you will discover the taonga (treasures) that connects us to our ancestors and guide us into the future.”

Te Papa is proud to be a contributor to this significant exhibition – eight impressive taonga from our collection will be on display at Rotorua Museum for the next five years.

At the same time there is another exhibition opening in a different gallery at Rotorua Museum – Blomfield in Wonderland which runs until 27 November 2011.

Charles Blomfield was strongly attracted by the native bush and began to paint pictures of the scenery. Although he had no previous training, he found he had a natural talent and soon mastered the art. From then on he painted wherever he went. Working in oils he painted his subject directly rather than recreating it in the studio from sketches. Blomfield made his name painting the famous Pink and White Terraces, which were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886.

Three of his paintings from the Te Papa collection will be on display: Bush scene; Scene of Kauri Bush, gumdiggers at work and Orakei Korako on the Waikato.

Orakei Korako on the Waikato, 1885, Blomfield, Charles (1848–1926), Auckland. Purchased 1994 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa

The Torres Strait Islander Festival which happens once a year in Queensland, Australia, marks a rare opportunity to raise awareness of its important culture. The overall intent of the Festival is to celebrate the contemporary and historical culture of Torres Strait Islanders.

The Queensland Museum exhibition Awakening: Stories from the Torres Strait, seeks to raise awareness of the complexity and diversity of Torres Strait Islander culture through an object-rich exhibition. A major theme in this exhibition is ‘Awakening’ – the concept of reconnecting objects, people and spirit. It is within this theme that Queensland Museum requested to borrow the precious Torres Strait Mask from the Te Papa Collection. The Te Papa Mask is of particular interest to Queensland Museum because it features a European style broad-rim hat, illustrating the complex cultural interactions that were taking place in late 19^th century Torres Strait, and the survival and continuity of Torres Strait culture in the wake of European contact. The Mask will be on display at Queensland Museum from 25 June 2011 – 04 December 2011.

Mask, circa 1870, Maker unknown, Torres Strait. Gift of the Marquess of Normanby, 1875. Te Papa

The Museum of Wellington City and Sea has an exhibition gallery devoted to the Wahine storm which occurred 10 April 1968 and holds the country’s major collection relating to the event.

In remembrance of the storm which was not only a disaster for humans with the loss of fifty one lives when the interisland ferry Wahine foundered, but it adversely affected the natural environment as well. In the week that followed the storm, hundreds of dead and damaged birds were brought into the SPCA and to the National Museum. Among them were a dozen albatross which have been lent to the Museum of Wellington City and Sea as an addition to their Wahine exhibition. The albatross skins will be on display until 30 September 2011. 

Another exciting exhibition is about to open 15 April 2011 – Upside Down: Arctic Realities at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. The exhibition will explore the relationship of the visual development of native cultures to their arctic environment as expressed in sensory perceptions of the landscape, spiritual and physical orientation, and attitudes toward the living and imagined universe. It will comprise of significant artefacts produced by native arctic cultures, addressing important ancient periods (ranging from 1000BC to 1400AD) from major sites, including Ekven inRussia, Ipiutak inAlaska, and Old Bering Sea cultures. A selection of ceremonial masks from the modern Yup’ik, most dating from the 19th century, represent an ancient tradition carried on into modern times. To present these works in an appropriate sensory context, visual artist Doug Wheeler has been invited to create an environment within the exhibition space.  He will employ light and space to elicit the extreme conditions – the brightness and darkness – of the vast arctic.

Hei tiki (pendant in human form), Wairarapa. Gift of the Russell Harris Broughton Estate, 2007. Te Papa

The Maori, Human figure Hei Tiki, from the Te Papa collection is integral to their presentation of this exhibition, and therefore has been lent to the Menil Collection until August 2011. 

The tiki has been discovered in April 1957 by Mr Russell H. Broughton of Masterton. Found embedded in surface sand on the floor of a wind-eroded hollow in dune about a mile south of Honeycomb Rock lighthouse, and approximately 400 yards from the shoreline.