Pacific Cultures: Our year in numbers and storeroom selfies!
It has been another busy year for the Pacific Cultures team.Read more
2015-12-31
Art at work
Do you have that end-of-the-year feeling? Everything compressing and accelerating towards a sense of an ending? I love walking through Te Papa’s art galleries on Level 5, especially at this time of the year. Ngā Toi | Arts Te Papa is an escape from the everyday, from schedules and deadlinesRead more
2015-12-11
Being a botanist: Q&A with students from South Wellington Intermediate School
Last week I was invited to give a talk at my son’s class at South Wellington Intermediate School (SWIS) about what it is like to be a botanist at Te Papa. To help me prepare, the students wrote down questions they had about botany or being a botanist. Their questionsRead more
2015-12-10
Transient Spaces – A Photographic Journey
The year was 1997 and Te Papa was about to open on the waterfront. Two buildings waited in the wings, Buckle St, the then National Museum and Tory St, the soon to be collection store and science facility. At the time the buildings were in a state of flux. Still clinging toRead more
2015-12-08
Albatross vs shark
After an albatross specimen was collected on a Wellington beach and taken to Te Papa, curator Alan Tennyson and his colleagues were astounded to see a shark’s tail protruding from its neck.Read more
2015-12-04
Scientists meet Scientists: ECE ‘Back of House’ visits (Group 3: Raumati South Kindergarten)
Throughout 2015, young children from three Wellington regional Early Childhood Centres (ECE) have been thinking and working as scientists as part of the ‘It’s a Bugs Life’ partnership project with Te Papa Education. In celebration of the mahi (work), their teachers and educators from Te Papa arranged for the children to come and meet with more experienced scientistsRead more
2015-11-17
Help us make our digital content better for you!
We’re working on an exciting project to make our digital content better for you, and we need your help to make sure we’re heading in the right direction. Take part We’re looking for people to come to Te Papa to try out a new digital project we’re working on. NoRead more
2015-11-16
Scientists meet Scientists: ECE ‘Back of House’ visits (Group 2: Kiwi Kids ECE)
Throughout 2015, young children from three Wellington regional Early Childhood Centres (ECE) have been thinking and working as scientists as part of the ‘It’s a Bugs Life’ partnership project with Te Papa Education. In celebration of the mahi (work), their teachers and educators from Te Papa arranged for the children to come and meet with more experienced scientistsRead more
2015-11-09
Scientists meet Scientists: ECE ‘Back of House’ Visits (Group 1: Imagine Childcare)
Throughout 2015, young children from three Wellington regional Early Childhood Centres (ECE) have been thinking and working as scientists as part of the ‘It’s a Bugs Life’ partnership project with Te Papa Education. In celebration of the mahi (work), their teachers and educators from Te Papa arranged for the children to come and meet with more experienced scientistsRead more
2015-11-06
Te Papa’s new DNA lab is up and running
Last week I performed the first DNA extraction in Te Papa’s brand new genetics laboratory. Our lab is the first genetics lab in a New Zealand museum and will allow Te Papa scientists to analyse the DNA of our unique plants and animals. Genetic information is increasingly being used to examine theRead more
2015-10-12
Emotional connections: Federation of International Human Rights in Museums Conference
The Federation of International Human Rights in Museums (FIHRM) Conference was hosted at Te Papa last week – three days of stimulating talks and workshops led by experts from around the world on the theme ‘Access is a human right’. Katie Kyung, from UN Youth, blogs about her experience atRead more
2015-10-09
Reframing Museums
The Federation of International Human Rights in Museums (FIHRM) Conference was hosted at Te Papa last week – three days of stimulating talks and workshops led by experts from around the world on the theme ‘Access is a human right’. Melissa Gibson, from UN Youth, blogs about her experience atRead more
2015-10-07
Colossal Squid #2: Update
Te Papa’s second colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, is part of the displays for the upcoming Te Papa Open House on 25th July 2015 – a part of the 150th celebrations for the Wellington City as capital of New Zealand. The squid was caught in the Ross Sea in early 2014, by Captain JohnRead more
2015-07-23
How the heck would a grunt know that?
We presented soldiers’ actual words as much as possible, but had to create an imagined soldier-narrator – ‘the grunt’ – to fill many gaps in the story.Read more
2015-07-21
Can’t Touch This (Or Can You?): An Experience in Rights Management
“How do you feel about working in copyright?”, my academic supervisor asked me back in April. My response was non-committal. I may not have been sure exactly where my interests lay in the museum sector, but I didn’t think that copyright was on my radar at all. However I decidedRead more
2015-07-15