Te Papa acquires a rainbow
2021-09-27
Collections Data Manager Gareth Watkins describes how an LGBTI rainbow artwork by the famous flag maker Gilbert Baker has found a home at Te Papa.Read more
Forty years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
2021-05-20
Forty years ago saw the first media reports of HIV/AIDS. Te Papa’s Gareth Watkins reflects on the timeline of the pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history, which sees a number of significant anniversaries in the coming weeks.Read more
Belated memorial for Darren Horn, an early AIDS activist
2020-12-01
Te Papa team member Gareth Watkins describes how a community and whānau transformed an early AIDS activist’s wooden graveside cross into a permanent memorial.Read more
What remains: When photos capture fleeting nature of time
2018-06-01
Collections Data Technician Gareth Watkins finds a series of photographs from the 1800s where a combination of movement and long exposure has created unusual, ghostly scenes.Read more
Pink Shirt Day: Finding strength through taonga
2018-05-18
Today is Pink Shirt Day, “a day about working together to stop bullying by celebrating diversity”. Collections Data Technician Gareth Watkins talks about the significance of the day, and finding strength in our collections.Read more
Rapidly digitising 10,000 collection items
2018-02-27
A look at improvements we’ve made recently to digitise our collections faster, including some of the gems we’ve uncovered so far.Read more
‘I feel his presence in these images’: The photographs of George Crombie
2017-10-25
Working in a museum is filled with unexpected discoveries – especially when you’re looking at photographs from 100 years ago. Explore the life of an avid photographer whose photographs offered something different from the norm.Read more
Faces in the crowd: Zooming in on our photography collection
2017-09-04
If you look close enough you might find things you missed, and uncover characters hidden in plain sight.Read more
Starfish: An unexpected journey
2017-06-12
A look at the series of events that led to fashion label Starfish’s closure in 2013.Read more
How Rita Angus landscapes inspired a Starfish collection
2017-04-18
“It’s my product. It’s my vision. It’s my dream. It’s my life,” writes Laurie Foon, founder of the Starfish fashion label in the late 1990s.Read more
Telling stories through fashion: A history of eco-friendly Starfish
2017-02-28
It’s not every day that you get to delve into the nitty-gritty details of a fashion label. Te Papa’s assistant archivist Gareth Watkins is going through Starfish’s archive, recently gifted to Te Papa.Read more