Natural history collections are an important record of Earth’s biodiversity and are used to examine a range of scientific questions in areas from biodiversity monitoring to biosecurity, the impacts of climate change and public health. To be most useful, collections should be all-encompassing – representing all life on Earth. However,Read more
Exhibition design isn’t just deciding where and how taonga is displayed and where the labels go. Each exhibition requires deep thinking about how taonga is displayed, how different taonga are grouped together, and ways of connecting stories and information together to guide the visitor, all while making it all lookRead more
As part of the Digital Collections team, Collections Data Manager Gareth Watkins supports kaimahi across the museum to maintain accurate information in EMu, Te Papa’s Collection Management System, ensuring it supports the documentation and management of more than a million collection items, taonga and natural history specimens. Here, Gareth shares how he created anRead more
Scientists from the Lions Ōtari Plant Conservation Laboratory and Te Papa have followed and documented the changes orchid seeds undergo from germination to adult form. A description of these rarely seen stages will help conservation scientists identify tiny orchid seedlings growing on moss- and lichen-covered tree trunks and determine whetherRead more
Have fish diets changed over the last 150 years? Auckland University of Technology Master’s student Roen McLeod is seeing whether the eye lenses of Te Papa’s historic fish collection could one day reveal where they were feeding and what they were eating. The natural history collection built and cared for byRead more
Botany Curator Leon Perrie and Science Researcher Lara Shepherd are working with David Glenny from the Bioeconomy Science Institute to investigate the relationships among Aciphylla, also known as taramea, speargrasses, or Spaniards. Here they introduce a newly described species. It’s relatively easy to suspect something might be a different species,Read more
Michael Bancroft died on 7 July 2026, aged 76. A former Catholic priest and professed member of the Marist Brothers’ Order, a retired St John chaplain, and a celebrant, Michael stood beside people at some of life’s most profound moments: as they were dying and grieving, and as they marriedRead more
Speargrasses are some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most distinctive plants and an iconic feature of many of Te Waipounamu’s non-forested habitats, especially when flowering. Te Papa Research Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botany Curator Leon Perrie analysed DNA from speargrasses to examine how genetic diversity is partitioned across Te Waipounamu SouthRead more
For two weeks in late March and early April 2026, Botany Curator Heidi Meudt took some time off botany work to be a Department of Conservation volunteer for birds – specifically, a volunteer cook for the Kākāpō Recovery team. For Heidi, this was the opportunity of a lifetime to visitRead more
Tai Tamariki: An Introduction Many people may not realise that here at Te Papa Tongarewa, we are home to Tai Tamariki, a unique early childhood centre. Tai Tamariki has been based at Te Papa on our ground floor since 2010, and is much more than a ‘tenant’. The children andRead more
In 2025, Te Papa acquired four watercolours by the nineteenth-century British artist Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming (1837–1924). Over summer, art history lecturer Dr Victoria Munn, and student and artist, Catherine Shone, brought new light to bear on Gordon-Cumming’s artistic practice and process. Who was Constance Gordon-Cumming? Constance Gordon-Cumming (1837–1924) was aRead more
Pat Miller has been walking Northland’s beaches, looking for treasure, for more than half a century. In September last year he made his most notable discovery yet – a new bird record for New Zealand. Most New Zealand bird enthusiasts have never heard of Jouanin’s petrel. Those who knew ofRead more
The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge is an annual citizen science event where cities worldwide compete to record the most observations and species, and to have the greatest number of participants over a four-day period. Science Researcher Lara Shepherd highlights some of the interesting discoveries made during the challenge, in whatRead more
Public programmes are often a gateway into a museum’s collections, sparking curiosity, deepening understanding, and helping people connect with exhibitions, research, and stories in meaningful ways. For many, a museum programme can be the beginning of a lifelong love of cultural institutions. But what happens when those programmes are notRead more
Te Papa Botany Curator Heidi Meudt has published a new comprehensive study on the pollen of southern hemisphere forget-me-nots (Myosotis, Boraginaceae). The new study is the third and final publication detailing the morphology of forget-me-not pollen using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The first two studies, published in 2016 and 2020,Read more
