St Joseph’s Home for Incurable opens 113 years ago (29 January 1900) This home for so-called ‘incurables’, in Buckle Street, Wellington, was an initiative set up by Reverend Mother Mary Joseph Aubert, with the help of Catholic nuns, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion. Mother Aubert was the founderRead more

By:
On:
In: History

Orchids are one of the top five plant groups with conservation issues in New Zealand. Unlike many other endangered or uncommon plants, propagation of native orchids from seed for conservation has not been attempted in New Zealand before. With the help of funding from the Otari Wilton’s Bush Trust, theRead more

By:
On:
In: Science

So here are the mysteries that remain unsolved – if you can help please use the comment section at the end of this post. 1) mystery beach… 2) we know that it is not Olveston, Bishop’s Court or Columba College… 3) North Island? 4) Small North Island town… 5) 19th century South Island factory… 6)Read more

By:
On:
In: History, Photography

Many of you have been helping identify the locations and places in some of the mystery photographs in Te Papa’s collection. It has been very enjoyable hearing from people, checking the information offered and updating the results on the database. All the images in this post have been identified by the publicRead more

By:
On:
In: History, Photography
Curator Dougal Austin condition reporting all 216 objects, November 2012. Callum Strong.

Kura Pounamu is Te Papa’s first exhibition of Maori Taonga in China since the National Museum sent Maori artifacts in 1978. The mutual appreciation of ‘green stone’ jadite (jade) and nephrite (pounamu) provided an ideal platform for re-establishing a cultural exchange. The exhibition required ease of installation and minimal objectRead more

By:
On:
In: Behind the scenes, Māori
Te Papa curator Colin Miskelly checks out a giant ongaonga leaf. Photo credit: Lara Shepherd

Whilst recently chasing seabirds on Titi Island we came across tree nettles (ongaonga, Urtica ferox) with super-sized leaves. The largest leaf we measured was 28 cm long, much longer than the maximum leaf length of 18 cm given for this species in the Flora of New Zealand. Perhaps the abundantRead more

By:
On:
In: Science

Plants can grow in what appear to be the strangest places.  This can be frustrating for property owners (e.g., grass in the gutter; footpaths cracked by pohutukawa roots). But our view of plants is often from our own animal-centric perspective; unlike our zoological kin, an individual plant doesn’t have theRead more

By:
On:
In: Art

Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the 12th, and probably final, instalment of the story of the emperor penguin that went where none had gone before. Previous blogs on the penguin were posted between 23 June 2011 and 24 April 2012. For those of you interestedRead more

By:
On:
In: Science

Titi Island is a 32-ha reserve administered by the Department of Conservation and situated in the outer Marlborough Sounds. The island’s fauna was impacted by introduced Norway rats until these were eradicated in the early 1970s. The island has since been free of all introduced predators. Two species of largeRead more

By:
On:
In: Science

A team from the Discovery Centres recently spent nine Wednesday afternoons together with nine awesome tamariki (children) in a trial run of Te Papa’s first after school club. Through the after school club we wanted to learn, together with the tamariki, about the stories Te Papa tells. We also wantedRead more

By:
On:
In: Education, Photography

I am immediately intrigued. Human Video Games? My mind conjures up little stick figures being chased through a maze by giant Cheezles with teeth!  Mmmmn…Cheezles…anywayyy, as soon as the event kicks off at 1pm on a scorchingly hot day at Te Papa,  I find an excuse to meander down toRead more

By:
On:
In: Education