For almost two years, Te Papa has been digitising the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf collection of photographic negatives. Now the project has reached the end of its funding, here’s some highlights from the current team members. Read more
Recent developments in photographic equipment and software has contributed to a proliferation of stunning wildlife images. Natural History curator Colin Miskelly describes how high-quality digital images have revealed previously overlooked or unrecognised ecological interactions between two ancient species that have been in Aotearoa for tens of millions of years. OurRead more
Here, Ariki Spooner, Kaitaki Tīma Tuhituhi Reo Māori, discusses the process of arriving at the te reo Māori name Ngā Taniwha o Rūpapa for the Dinosaurs of Patagonia exhibition coming this summer. Read more
Megan Tamati-Quennell, Curator Modern & Contemporary Māori & Indigenous Art, discusses Michael Parekōwhai’s ‘He Kōrero Pūrakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river’.Read more
The Ockham Lecture series is an annual programme of lectures and panel discussions that critically engage with craft, design, and architecture. Director of Audience and Insight Puawai Cairns recently presented her Ockham Lecture in connection to Tīhāte!, a project in the Objectspace exhibition Pohewa Pāhewa: a Māori design kaupapa which demonstrates how t-shirt design outcome is used by Māori to show affiliations, share protest messages, and commemorate important moments. Puawai is a co-author of the book Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance, along with Curator History Stephanie Gibson, and then Curator Mātauranga Māori Matariki Williams. Here we’re reproducing some of her kōrero from the lecture as well as contributions from Stephanie Gibson about some of the tees that are featured in the book and why museums collect them as taonga.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this eleventh and final blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered whileRead more
Photography curator Athol McCredie reflects on a famous photograph discovered in 2020 amongst our huge Spencer Digby / Ronald D. Woolf portrait collection of negatives.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this tenth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
We just released over 5000 out-of-copyright and Creative Commons-licensed collection images to Google Arts & Culture, with more to come. Digital Channels Outreach Manager Lucy Schrader talks about why we selected these pics and shares some of the tech that made it work. We love sharing collection images thiiiiiiis much!Read more
Within our Te Taiao | Nature exhibition is a nature debate platform called Te Au | The Current. We invite manuhiri to respond to an environmental challenge and a proposed idea for how to deal with it. Here, Exhibition Experience Developer Murphy Peoples shares visitor responses to a recent topic about climate change resilience.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this ninth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Librarian Amy Phillips responds to a research request received by Te Papa’s library, Te Aka Matua, which leads to solving a mystery and publishing information to improve a Wikipedia page.Read more
You cannot be much closer to extinction than the swamp helmet orchid (Corybas carsei), a tiny terrestrial orchid that is found in a single wetland in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Fortunately, recently published studies, part of Te Papa/VUW student Jennifer Alderton-Moss’s thesis, are helping to understand how mycorrhizal fungi can be used to save one of our most threatened orchids. Jennifer Alderton-Moss and Botany Curator Carlos Lehnebach describe the work.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this eighth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has ten official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this seventh blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
