By Alison Burnett and Susan Waugh The austral summer is the peak breeding season for seabirds in New Zealand. Te Papa is undertaking research into the impacts of seabird mortality in fisheries on shearwater populations over the next 2 summers. We began the study in January 2012, surveying islands toRead more
The New Zealand science community was quite different in 1977 compared to 2012. Most government scientists then worked for one of the many divisions of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), our reserve networks and protected species were administered by multiple agencies, and the national museum was known asRead more
Here at Te Papa we passionately believe in the power of art to enrich, empower and challenge our lives and we are committed to bringing art to the widest possible audience. Recently, a small group of us have teamed up to develop and trial a new project called Stick it toRead more
The Yamashina Institute of Ornithology in Abiko houses the largest collection of birds in Japan, with over 60,000 specimens, including the newly discovered Okinawan Rail Rallus okinawae, New Zealand Kakapo, and one of the world’s rarest species, the Short-tailed Albatross. The exchange with the Institute in Tokyo is part ofRead more
A year ago, we launched the Te Papa Wedding Photo Gallery. We did so in conjunction with the news that the V&A’s sumptuous exhibition of 200 years of wedding fashion was coming to our shores. Both announcements were timed to coincide with the much-anticipated marriage of Prince William to CatherineRead more
The New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt and associated archive has been gifted to Te Papa, and is now housed in the museum for posterity. The Quilt is a profound and significant taonga – representing the many people who died of AIDS in New Zealand during the devastating epidemic in theRead more
German jeweller Karl Fritsch, whose jewellery and objects are on display in Collecting Contemporary now lives in Wellington. The building of this workshop has been a key ingredient in the development of some of his work in the show. Ring, below, was made in 2010 soon after settling into WellingtonRead more
The Hen and Chicken islands are a familiar landmark located some 10 to 19 km off the Whangarei coast. From 28 March to 6 April this year, four of us (Robyn Blyth, Raymond Thorley and Jean-Claude Stahl from Te Papa, Kalin Lewis from Ngati Wai) stayed on Mauimua / LadyRead more
Thirty years ago, Wellington is voted nuclear weapons-free by the city council (14 April 1982). In 1981, New Zealand peace groups began campaigning for sites around the country to become nuclear weapons-free. This initiative was supposed to highlight the dangers of nuclear weapons and to change national policies related toRead more
Early last century, New Plymouth man William Gordon assembled a photographic record of people (both Māori and European) who served in the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s. The Dominion Museum (Te Papa’s second predecessor) purchased the photographs in 1916 as part of the Gordon Collection. Recently, I have beenRead more
Te Papa’s curator of terrestrial vertebrates Dr Colin Miskelly tells the 11th 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 and 12 September 2011. One of the unknowns regarding the emperor penguin thatRead more
Work at the fisheries Convention on the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna meeting on bycatch and ecological effects of fishing has progressed in Tokyo in March. The group met to consider ways of reducing seabird, turtle and shark bycatch in fishing for southern bluefin tuna around the southern Ocean. AlbatrossRead more
This week marks the conclusion of Wedding Dress of the Week, as Unveiled: 200 years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London finishes at Te Papa on Sunday. My final wedding dress pick is one of the most admired dresses not actually in the exhibition – that is exceptRead more
A few months ago we received a rather unusual loan request, on the surface the request looked quite straight forward however on closer inspection it was going to be rather challenging. First of all the Community Mafutaga Tupulaga Tokelau Porirua had asked if they could borrow some of the TokelauanRead more
During Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London there has been much gasping and musing over the number of teeny tiny waists on display, and those elegant instruments of torture, corsets. I, however, have been captivated by sleeves – dropped, ruched, puffed and frilled.Read more
