73 years ago Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage dies (27 March 1940) Mickey Savage, as many New Zealanders fondly referred to him, was the country’s first Labour Prime Minister. Australian-born Savage had arrived in New Zealand in 1907. He became the Labour MP for Auckland Central electorate in 1919. Labour’sRead more
I recently co-authored a paper with Barbara Parris that investigated the scientific classification and naming of New Zealand’s strap ferns. If you’ve spent any time in New Zealand’s forests, you will have almost certainly seen the common strap fern. It has simple, undivided fronds up to 20 cm long, butRead more
人形项饰-海蒂基远涉重洋来到中国这个古老的玉文化国度 Te Papa’s exhibition “Kura Pounamu: Treasured Jade Art of Aotearoa New Zealand” opens on 1 April at Liangzhu Museum, Hangzhou, China. Liangzhu Museum is located in the heart of one of the largest and most significant jade archaeological sites in China dating back over 5000 years. 新西兰国家博物馆-蒂帕帕关于“毛利碧玉：新西兰文化艺术珍品展”即将于今年4月1日在中国杭州市的良渚博物院展出。 良渚博物院座落于中国最大的也是最显著的玉文化遗址区，良渚玉文化有超过5千年的历史。Read more
Te Papa’s Whales exhibition is about to open at one of the world’s most prestigious venues, the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. The exhibition has been touring the world since 2008 and has already been seen by more than a million people in North America. The AmericanRead more
When Te Papa purchased Easy Chair two years ago, we acquired it for its associations with modernism and with the Auckland store jon jansen. But we wanted to verify the designer. Detailed research – surveying design publications, comparing similar chairs, identifying woods – finally led me to the original SwedishRead more
By Alan Tennyson, Curator of Vertebrates I was invited by Chris Gaskin (Forest & Bird) and Matt Rayner (Auckland University) to join a party in February 2013 on the Mokohinau Islands to hunt for the nesting grounds of the recently rediscovered New Zealand storm petrel (Fregetta maoriana). This island groupRead more
Recently I have been obtaining DNA sequences from some of the fern samples collected by Te Papa Botany curator Leon Perrie on his recent trip to New Caledonia. We aim to determine the relationships of these New Caledonian ferns to other ferns around the world, including those from New Zealand.Read more
Read about the education programme Helen Lloyd, Te Papa’s Senior Education Programmer’s is designing on Creative New Zealand’s NZ at Venice blog: http://www.nzatvenice.com/Read more
Here at the haut lieu of albatross biology – Le Champ des Albatros, Crozet Islands the main study site for Wandering Albatrosses in the French Southern Territories, we have now done a round of all the behaviour testing, GPS deployments and nest checks that await us over the next month.Read more
70 years ago, 48 Japanese prisoners of war are killed during a riot at the Featherston prisoner of war camp (25 February 1943) From 1942, Japanese prisoners of war were brought to New Zealand and interned at the camp at Featherston, in the Wairarapa. This camp had previously been used as aRead more
Last week, along with 15 other people from museums and galleries around New Zealand who work with photographic collections, I attended a course on the care and identification of photographic prints and negatives. The course was taken by Gawain Weaver, a photographic conservator from San Francisco and he also gaveRead more
An abundance of tree ferns is one of the botanical characteristics that New Zealand shares with many of the larger Pacific Islands. The number of different species is not especially high, but tree fern individuals feature prominently in many Pacific and New Zealand landscapes. Following my work in Fiji, I’veRead more
Genetic research requires a small amount of tissue from animal or plant specimens to be destroyed in order to obtain DNA. Te Papa’s bird team recently pondered the best way to sample tissue for DNA whilst causing a minimal amount of damage to seabird specimens. In July 2011 a periodRead more
Te Papa is deeply saddened by the death yesterday of Ralph Hotere – one of the country’s greatest artists. Our thoughts go out to his family, his friends, and the arts community. Ralph once commented that ‘There are few things I can say about my work that are better thanRead more
12.51pm today marks the second anniversary of the 6.3 earthquake that caused severe damage and resulted in the loss of 185 lives in Christchurch and its suburbs, with many more injured and displaced. Two years on the citizens of Canterbury are still struggling to rebuild their city and lives. WhileRead more
