Last year to celebrate Cook Islands Māori Language week, Grace Hutton (Collection Manager Pacific Cultures) wrote a blog about photographer George Robson Crummer who resided in the Cook Islands from 1890. Te Papa has over 240 items from Crummer including 227 black and white negatives some of which are badlyRead more
Is the painting Idlesse by Thomas Benjamin Kennington (1856–1916) a late Victorian time-bomb, which would have delighted intellectual guru Michel Foucault, author of The History of Sexuality? Or is it an unjustly overlooked, chaste, white masterpiece, a victim of prudery and puritanism in its lack of exposure since its acquisitionRead more
On Thursday 26 June Te Papa hosts a talk by journalist Todd Niall who discusses the Trekka – the vehicle and the art work. In the run up to the talk we’re collecting memories of the Trekka vehicle – good and bad. What did you think of it? Email yourRead more
If you are feeling nostalgic you are probably sentimentally yearning for a period in the past – for a happy, simpler time. But the past often thinks about the future, and its sometimes naïve and romantic imaginations can make you feel nostalgic too. Here’s Bernard Roundhill 1956 vision of Auckland in the yearRead more
At the end of 2013, Te Papa started working on a series of creative responses to Colin McCahon’s Walk (Series C) (1973) – long an artistic trigger. We approached poet and writer Greg O’Brien who agreed to work with us. Greg contacted some of New Zealand’s most well-known poets. OverRead more
Who are your kaitiaki? Early in April the senior students of Ngāti Toa School in Porirua had the opportunity to create colourful art to adorn the walls of our Māori Discovery Centre, Te Huka ā Tai. Their theme was Kaitiakitanga (Guardianship), looking at both who their own guardians are andRead more
When Captain Cook’s Endeavour sailed into Whitianga harbour in 1769 Maori thought the ship was a god, and the people on board tupua, strange beings or goblins. This was confirmed as they rowed ashore, for the way they faced opposite to their direction of travel suggested they had eyes inRead more
If so, what did you think of the Trekka the only vehicle ever designed and mass-produced in New Zealand? Te Papa would love to hear your memories. Email your recollections, opinions, a story or even a favourite photograph through to eventenquiries@tepapa.govt.nz by Wednesday 25 June, 5 pm. The best 5 willRead more
Imagine this: the Soundings Theatre at Te Papa is staging a lunchtime event. It seats just over 300, but the only problem is that 24,000 people want to be there. This was the scary scenario confronting the National Gallery, Washington, when it screened the first episode of the pioneering televisionRead more
In mid-2013 a creature that looked like a rabbit, squirrel or rat in a NASA Mars rover photograph was spotted by a blogger. The photograph quickly went viral, to the point where it started attracting news media attention. This isn’t the only animal seen in Mars photographs either. A lizardRead more
What do Colin McCahon, Shi Lu, Petrus Van Der Velden, and Gerda Leenards have in common? They are all landscape artists whose work were studied in a recent teacher workshop here at Te Papa. In the education team we love giving a little back to all those hard working teachers,Read more
“For thousands of years man has gazed up at the moon and wondered.” That’s roughly how those worthy documentary commentaries begin, isn’t it? Well, Te Papa’s forerunner museums responded to this curiosity in two acquisitions almost 100 years apart. The first was an 1873 photograph of the moon made by the Great MelbourneRead more
Yiyan Wang, Professor of Chinese at Victoria University of Wellington discussed the life and work of artist Shi Lu. Who is the artist? What does his art tell us?Read more
When I was in my first year of secondary school the headmaster, a teacher of English and social studies, had to take our science class because the science teacher had resigned. One day we were doing a session with a microscope and he cried out, “Quickly, have a look atRead more
In 1947 silvery pieces of wreckage were found in a field near Roswell, New Mexico. They were quickly confiscated by personnel from the Roswell Army Air Field base and a rumour that an alien spacecraft had crash landed soon spread. But with little evidence the story didn’t go far untilRead more
