Māori Language Week 2014! To celebrate the Te Papa Education team offered teachers something new, as 37 teachers from all over Wellington, ranging from ECE to intermediate school, joined together to grow and support Te Reo Māori in the classroom. We played a range of kēmu to get the blood and the brain pumping, like wharewhare, using the 50 kupu… Read more »
Posts categorized as Māori
Kaitiaki project for Matariki in StoryPlace!
There has been an awesome collaborative project happening in StoryPlace as part of our Matariki programme! The response has been absolutely huge! With kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as our theme for 2014, we wanted to give tamariki (children) and their whānau (family and friends) the opportunity to acknowledge, discuss and share the role they play in caring for the people,… Read more »
Arohatia te Reo: learning 50 kupu hou (new Māori words) – Te Reo and WWI research

In honour of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, here are a number of kupu Māori (Māori words) that I constantly use in my everyday mahi/work as a curator at Te Papa, and especially in my research for the First World War exhibition we are presently developing. Many of the sources written in te reo Māori that date… Read more »
Common plant names for Māori Language Week
For many of New Zealand’s indigenous plants, the Māori name is the ‘common’ name, and English names are rarely, if ever, used; think rimu, tōtara, kauri, pōhutukawa, and mamaku. Other species have both Māori and English names, but it is the latter that is predominant, at least in my experience. Below are some such examples… Read more »
A Victorian Tomboy, Navigating History and Maps Maps Maps!

By Riah King-Wall, intern Kia ora – I’m Riah King-Wall, and for the past five weeks I’ve been digging into some of the fascinating bits and pieces housed within the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Here on placement from the Master of Museum and Heritage Studies programme at Victoria University of Wellington, I’ve… Read more »
Objets trouvés : Signs of humanity at Ohinau Island.
Recent work on Ohinau Island, Coromandel reinforced for me how fine the boundary is between the sciences. We were working on the biology of shearwaters nesting at an important historical site for Ngati Hei, an iwi from the eastern Coromandel. The island has been inhabited in the past, and was an important food gathering site… Read more »
Whiti Te Rā! The Story of Ngāti Toa Rangatira – now open!
Kia ora koutou. The exhibition opening and celebratory weekend was amazing. Thank you to all the many people of Ngāti Toa Rangatira who helped make this day happen. Also our acknowledgements to our past iwi in residence, and all those who came to the dawn opening, travelling from far and wide. There were over a thousand people in… Read more »
Taonga from Takahe Valley
For those of us working with the taonga Māori collections at Te Papa our work can sometimes also be a personal experience as we connect with taonga associated with the activities of our own ancestors and with places of cultural significance to our own people. It has been a little while but I had one… Read more »
Whiti Te Rā! The Story of Ngāti Toa Rangatira exhibition – behind the scenes
The final days for the exhibition installation is upon us. Progress has been moving along at a steady pace, as all the structural build, lighting, graphics, technological services, audio visual testing, instalment of cases and taonga are taking place. The development of the exhibition began about 19 months ago, with the establishment of… Read more »
“Whiti Te Rā! The Story of Ngāti Toa Rangatira” exhibition opening soon!

Whiti Te Rā! The Story of Ngāti Toa Rangatira, the next iwi exhibition at Te Papa, is opening on the 14th June. As we work up to the final two weeks before opening, it’s time to catch our breath for a minute and appreciate the hard work and talent that has gone into creating… Read more »