Late last year Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Wellington hosted Pūoro Tū, a festival of “adventures in Māori instruments and sounds”. Here, taonga pūoro practitioner and Pūoro Tū organiser Ruby Solly reflects on this six-day celebration of the oro.Read more
Te Papa has approximately 68 tokotoko in our collection representing all time periods, and this year, Mātauranga Māori Curator Isaac Te Awa acquired two more. However, these ones are slightly different from the more common style.Read more
Tapa, or barkcloth, is an important textile in the Pacific. Tapa is made from the beaten inner bark of some plant species, but once the tapa is made then identifying which plant species was used is difficult. Our genetics researcher Lara Shepherd teamed up with Catherine Smith from the University of Otago and colleagues to create a DNA reference database for identifying the plants used to make tapa.Read more
In December 2020, Te Papa botanists Heidi Meudt and Antony Kusabs were in the field with three North Island iwi: Tamakaimoana, Ngāti Porou, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Worryingly, their search for rare forget-me-nots was unsuccessful. But their collaborative mahi struck a meaningful chord.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
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
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
Ngā mihi o te Tau Hou! Today’s New Moon marks the start of the lunar new year. So now is a good time to sync your life to the Maramataka – the Māori lunar calendar. Read on to learn about the Maramataka and what each day of the month is good for, and then download a dial to keep track of the days.Read more
Mātauranga Māori curator Matariki Williams (Tūhoe, Te Atiawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Hauiti) dives into a series of paintings by Colin McCahon, commissioned by the Urewera National Park Board in the 1970s.Read more
Today many people in Wellington are gathering for a public memorial service for Piri Sciascia, who passed away 18 Jan 2020. In this blog, we commemorate Piri and his enduring support for Te Papa, Māori art, and taonga.Read more
Sustainable indigenised practice in colonial museum models – is there such a thing? Kaihāpai Mātauranga Māori | Head of Mātauranga Māori Puawai Cairns explores the question.Read more
In 2017, a jacket worn by the fictional gang Toa Aoteoroa in the 1994 film ‘Once Were Warriors’ entered the national collection. History curator Stephanie Gibson explains why.Read more
