Between November 2022 and February 2023, Te Papa Natural History interns Tobia Dale and Ben Carson assisted with the curation of three major donations of New Zealand frogs and lizards. In this third blog about their work, Tobia describes her attempt to track down the first evidence of a deadly fungus in Aotearoa New Zealand.Read more
In this video, several key people working in the Asian mental health space in Aotearoa New Zealand – many of them featured in our Asian Mental Health video series – look to the future and consider: where to from here?Read more
On March 18, 2023, people from across Aotearoa and further afield came together to reimagine Asian mental health. Presented by Te Papa as part of its Asian Mental Health project, and spearheaded by Mehwish Mughal and Grace Gassin, the Reimagining Asian Mental Health hui brought together mental health professionals, advocates, activists, and academics to speak on the issues and ways forward, surrounded by a room full of passionate individuals.Read more
Between November 2022 and February 2023, Natural History interns Tobia Dale and Ben Carson assisted with the curation of three major donations of New Zealand frogs and lizards. Following their first blog on processing pickled pepeketua (native frogs), this second blog describes their processing of a large collection of native lizards from the 1980s, and an opportunity to see several of these species in the wild on Mana Island.Read more
I recently spent a week on Norfolk Island collecting ferns. One non-fern plant I was particularly keen to see was harakeke (Phormium tenax), on which I’ve done recent genetic work. On Norfolk Island it is known as flax, so I’ll use that name here. What I hadn’t appreciated before the trip was the significance of flax to the settlement of Norfolk Island.Read more
Eva Chen is a mother to four children, and a passionate advocate for the wellbeing of Asian communities. Here, she talks about relatable challenges in her advocacy, and her culturally sensitive approach to supporting our communities.Read more
The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge is an annual event to see which city can record the most observations, species, and participants over a four-day period. 2023 was the third year that Wellington has participated. Science Researcher Lara Shepherd highlights some of the interesting discoveries made during the challenge. This yearRead more
Assistant Curator Natural History Andrew Stewart describes a recent specimen processed by the Fishes team – one of the more striking deep-water predators and relative to the barracouta (a.k.a. the Fisherman’s curse), a large oilfish called Ruvettus pretiosus. Read more
Three Te Papa botanists recently visited Norfolk Island together with colleagues from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Their purpose was to collect ferns for research. Curator of Botany Leon Perrie introduces the significance of Norfolk Island’s ferns. Our research programme investigating the relationships and naming of Aotearoa New Zealand’s fernsRead more
Three of our botanists recently spent a week on Norfolk Island collecting ferns with colleagues from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Our fern findings will be detailed in a future blog post but here we discuss interesting flowering plants that we saw – some of which were very familiar to us as New Zealanders but others were completely new!Read more
It’s been three years since Covid-19 triggered lockdowns around the world, including here in Aotearoa New Zealand. We’ve just published a collection of online comics, highlighting a multitude of experiences faced by members of the Chinese New Zealand community during this time. Here, curator Grace Gassin introduces The Pandemic Chronicles.Read more
One of the largest collections of measina Sāmoa at Te Papa was donated by the Auckland-based German-Sāmoan Kronfeld family. Here, Alexander Gordon shares some insight into their fascinating story.Read more
New Zealand photography historian William (Bill) Main passed away in March at age 88. Here Curator Historical Photography Lissa Mitchell reflects on some aspects of his career, and Geoffrey Batchen and John B Turner share their thoughts on the loss of Bill.Read more
Speargrasses, with their sharp leaves and flower spikes, may look like a plant you want to avoid at all costs but a number of critters call them home, including the charismatic speargrass weevils. Science researcher Lara Shepherd introduces these weevils, plus some other critters that utilise speargrass plants. When IRead more
Iwi and hapū in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle suffered damage to marae, urupā, and taonga – some irrevocable – causing long-term impacts on these communities. Te Papa staff had their boots on the ground to help out at four marae in Ngāti Kahungunu. Here, they share their kōrero.Read more
