How many species of plants and animals do you think you could find in only four days? This year Wellington participants in the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge found 1537 species! Our Researcher Lara Shepherd and Curator Botany Leon Perrie summarise what was discovered.Read more
Pacific curator Rachel Yates introduces a co-collecting project that took Te Papa to Tokelau’s three low-lying coral atolls in the South Pacific.Read more
A team of keen birders recently participated in an 11-day trip to the remote Kermadec Islands, about 800 km north-east of mainland New Zealand. Several of the species they encountered are rarely seen or photographed – in New Zealand or anywhere. Trip organiser Scott Brooks has loaded more than 70 of his stunning images from the trip on to New Zealand Birds Online. Curator Vertebrates (and NZ Birds Online administrator) Colin Miskelly showcases the best of Scott’s Kermadec bird images.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
Madi Ojala is a Museum and Heritage Studies student at Victoria University who has been completing a Summer Internship at Te Papa. She discusses Adkin’s geological excursions and the appeal of working with Adkin’s prints, albums and diaries.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
Five Te Papa staff recently joined Department of Conservation colleagues on a boat-based survey of islands in central and northern Fiordland. One of the species they were hoping to learn more about was the mysterious grey-backed storm petrel. Vertebrates curator Colin Miskelly explains why this tiny bird was on their radar, and what they found.Read more
The struggles and joys of colonial exploration in Fiordland through a pair of stereoscopes. Both are from the Burton Brothers studio, one from the Alexander Turnbull Library and one from Te Papa. Te Papa’s Curator Historical Photography Lissa Mitchell investigates.Read more
‘Adkin’s photographs provide an honest, in-depth insight into rural life in New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century.’ Danielle Campbell, a Museum and Heritage Studies student at Victoria University, discusses her three favourite Leslie Adkin photographs that she came across during her summer internship at Te Papa.Read more
Olivia Martin, a Master of Museum and Heritage practice program student at Wellington’s Victoria University, spent three months working on a placement at Te Papa. Here she describes her work on a group of photographs.Read more
The classic 1960s film ‘Blow-Up’ had quite and impact on the photographers featured in our exhibition ‘The New Photography’. Here, photography curator Athol McCredie reflects on the movie, its themes, and some of the ways it connected to New Zealand photography.Read more
Curator Photography Athol McCredie looks at a photo by Max Oettli capturing a moment of curiosity in a little girl’s life. But who is she? Is she you?Read more
Photography Curator Athol McCredie’s new book The New Photography: New Zealand’s first-generation contemporary photographers has just been published by Te Papa Press. It is accompanied by an exhibition that runs until 13 October. The book and exhibition feature eight photographers who were working in a personal documentary manner from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.Read more
Scientist and aspiring field art historian George Hook shares his story on how he applied new methodology to help pin down the location of the iconic Pink and White Terraces, lost to the world with the Mt Tarawera eruption of 1886.Read more
New Zealand expatriate artist Bill Culbert passed away on 28 March 2019. Here, curator of photography Athol McCredie, and Curator of Modern & Contemporary Māori & Indigenous Art, Megan Tamati-Quennell, reflect on some aspects of Culbert’s work. Read more
