Tufunga Tātatau Terje Koloamatangi is of Tongan and Norwegian Sami ancestry. Born in Nuku’alofa Tongatapu with ancestral ties to Kolovai, Pangaimotu Vava’u, and Åmøya, in Northern Norway. He lives in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand. Koloamatangi is an artist and cultural tattoo practitioner. His work is centred on the revival of tātatau faka-Tonga (customary Tongan tattooing), a passion he has maintained for over 20 years. His practice is built on historical accounts, gleaned from texts, museum collections, and Tongan oral traditions. Here, Terje Koloamatangi discusses the origins and uses of the Tongan custom of tātatau or tattooing.Read more

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Members of Te Papa’s whānau recently established an informal Takatāpui Rainbow Sharing group. The group is open to all Te Papa kaimahi and acts as a hub to share information on collections and upcoming events (internal and external) relating to our various communities. To mark this year’s Wellington Pride Festival Tū Whakahīhī e Te Whanganui-ā-Tara (3–17 September) some of our members have written about what Pride means to them.Read more

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Museums are magical places where time travel happens almost on a daily basis and getting to know what our ancestors and their acquaintances were up to in the 1800s is not so far a reach. Botany Curator Carlos Lehnebach describes how the discovery of a box full of seed packets stored at Te Papa brought a botanist, a nurseryman and his great-great-granddaughter together more than a century later.Read more

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Bringing the swamp helmet orchid back from the brink of extinction is a mission that requires a multidisciplinary team of scientists, good eyesight and a lot of patience. There are only a few hundred plants of this species in the world; all of them are here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Curator Dr Carlos Lehnebach talks about his latest research to save this species.Read more

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Two people stand by water, with two fake deer. In the water is a torii (gate)

What does a young Japanese migrant from Hiroshima bring with her to her new adopted country? Setsuko Yotsugi brought a few things with her to start a future life in Wellington: hopes, dreams, resilience, and values. Here, her daughter Deb Donnelly tells the story of her mother’s journey to Aotearoa New Zealand and how she kept her connection with her birth country alive.Read more

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It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Luit Bieringa on 21 June.

Bieringa was director of the National Art Gallery from 1979 to 1989, an institution that merged with the National Museum to form what is now Te Papa. His story is embedded in the history of Te Papa – and indeed in the history of art in New Zealand. And the art works he and his staff acquired that are in our collection are a legacy he left for future generations.Read more

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Professional rat catchers removing rats from Sydney following an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague in 1900. Photo: NSW State Archives

Norway rats and house mice are two of the most widespread invasive species worldwide. But where did the Norway rats and house mice in New Zealand come from? Our geneticist Lara Shepherd and colleagues from Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, University of Waikato, and Place Management NSW have shed some light on this question by sequencing DNA from rodent bones from a 19th-century archaeological site in Sydney.Read more

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Visitors to Te Papa will no doubt have seen the Britten V1000 – an iconic, world-beating motorcycle designed and built in Christchurch by John Britten and his team. At the moment the bike will looks a bit different, as we are displaying it without its iconic pink and blue bodywork. History curator Katie Cooper gives an overview of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most famous motorbike.Read more

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