Today we’re publicly kicking off Voices of Asian Aotearoa. Under this initiative, we’ll be generating a variety of projects focused on the languages and cultural identities of different Asian New Zealand communities. Curator Grace Gassin introduces our first project, Chinese Languages in Aotearoa, which also includes a callout for the next stage – illustrators, we’d like to hear from you!Read more
Forty years ago, Aotearoa New Zealand erupted into violent protests when the South African Springbok rugby team toured the country from July to September 1981. History curator Stephanie Gibson takes us through some of the items in our collection that record what many people wore as personal protection during the protests.Read more
This month we opened a mini-exhibition called Feathermania: Fashion to Die For based on one of the chapters in History Curator Claire Regnault’s recent book, Dressed: Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1840 to 1910.
Here, Claire describes some of the objects in the exhibition in more detail, including some of the problems associated with the popularity of rare bird feathers and the impact on their population as well as society.Read more
To mark the recent Rotuman Language Week 2021, Senior Curator Pacific Histories and Cultures Sean Mallon shares two rare stories of Rotuman travellers who found their way to New Zealand in the early 1800s, and how a contemporary Rotuman artist has remembered one of them.Read more
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
One question, 200 answers. Public Programmes Specialist Emma Ng explores the creative way that theatre company Barbarian Productions gathered opinions on Aotearoa’s Covid-19 response.Read more
In February we ran a workshop focussing on the Covid-19 experiences of people from international student and migrant backgrounds (including partners and family members), co-facilitated by researcher Sarah Jane D. Lipura. Here, Curator Asian New Zealand Histories Dr Grace Gassin shares insights from the kōrero. If there is one thingRead more
It’s been a year since Aotearoa New Zealand went into lockdown in a move to restrict the spread of Covid-19. During this month-long period people sought to process the magnitude of what was happening through creative expression and entrepreneurial adaptations. Read about three taonga that Te Papa has collected to tell the story of this time.Read more
Curator Asian New Zealand Histories Dr Grace Gassin introduces Making Histories – a Te Papa project exploring different experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more
Just over six months ago, we lived in a very different Aotearoa. Six months later, what would we remember from then? On May 28 2020, we reopened our doors to the public after three months of closure due to Covid-19 lockdown. To acknowledge the time we’d spent apart, and to welcome our manuhiri (visitors) back into the building, we wanted to give them the opportunity to capture a small, personal moment in history, a snapshot in time as we collectively adjusted to our ‘new normal’.Read more
In this blog curators Isaac Te Awa and Katie Cooper use objects and photographs from our collection to explore some of the strategies used in the past to produce and preserve food.Read more
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
Amanda Sykes and Alice Hinton, Master of Museum and Heritage Practice program student at Wellington’s Victoria University, spent three weeks working on a placement at Te Papa’s Research library. Here they describe their work and adventures while here.Read more
Te Papa staff were very sad to hear of the recent passing of Marion Florence Mackenzie (née Rodie) on 9 Apr in Queensland (1919–2020). We knew her as Mollie Rodie, the creator of many beautiful costume sketches for fundraising pageants and carnivals in the Second World War (1939–45), now held in Te Papa’s collections.Read more
Valerie Carson, textile conservator, passed away on Tue 21 Jan surrounded by her family in Whanganui. Here, textiles conservators Rachael Collinge and Rangi Te Kanawa look back on her career.Read more
