The Cook Islands language of kopu tangata (family)
Applied arts lecturer Tuaine-Nurse Robati discusses the meanings of the words Cook Islanders use to talk about immediate family and the wider extended family.Read more
2021-08-06
Exploring Asian Aotearoa’s diverse cultures through languages
Today we’re publicly kicking off Voices of Asian Aotearoa. Under this initiative, we’ll be generating a variety of projects focused on the languages and cultural identities of different Asian New Zealand communities. Curator Grace Gassin introduces our first project, Chinese Languages in Aotearoa, which also includes a callout for the next stage – illustrators, we’d like to hear from you!Read more
2021-07-28
1981 Springbok Rugby Tour – Cardboard and clown suits
Forty years ago, Aotearoa New Zealand erupted into violent protests when the South African Springbok rugby team toured the country from July to September 1981. History curator Stephanie Gibson takes us through some of the items in our collection that record what many people wore as personal protection during the protests.Read more
2021-07-19
The 100 Year Moth Project: Spotting species in the sanctuary
One hundred years ago, Wellington naturalist George Hudson walked the forest near his home – now Zealandia wildlife sanctuary – in search of fascinating New Zealand insects. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Hudson collected and identified thousands of moth specimens, now part of one of the largest insect collections in New Zealand.
Natural History intern Annie Robertson describes his legacy, the 100 Year Project, and what the citizen science and entomologist communities have found.Read more
2021-07-16
Otintaai: The Rising Sun and the I-Kiribati climate change warrior
This year for Kiribati Language Week 2021 (11–17 July) we put the spotlight on the recent acquisition, Otintaai, a female I-Kiribati climate change warrior. Curator Rachel Yates introduces the master weavers and some of the speeches from the welcoming ceremony in May 2021. Read more
2021-07-13
The Solomon Islands story of Tiola and the origin of the nguzunguzu
The following is a kustom stori of the Roviana people of the Western Solomon Islands; the story of Tiola, a banara (chief) in Solomon Islands mythology and the origin of the nguzunguzu, the prow figureheads used by the islands’ tribes.Read more
2021-07-09
Feathermania: Fashion to Die For
This month we opened a mini-exhibition called Feathermania: Fashion to Die For based on one of the chapters in History Curator Claire Regnault’s recent book, Dressed: Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1840 to 1910.
Here, Claire describes some of the objects in the exhibition in more detail, including some of the problems associated with the popularity of rare bird feathers and the impact on their population as well as society.Read more
2021-07-08
Duck Tales: unveiling the ecology of the extinct Chatham Island duck
Curators Rodrigo Salvador and Alan Tennyson, working with colleagues from GNS Science and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), used chemical analysis on the sub-fossil bones of this extinct duck to determine how it lived. Here they describe what they found.Read more
2021-06-28
Te Papa’s DNA lab celebrates its fifth anniversary
Our DNA lab, the only museum-based one in New Zealand, celebrated its fifth anniversary last year. Research Scientist Lara Shepherd summarises what we’ve learned so far.Read more
2021-06-24
The final destination for well-travelled eggs
Over the course of many years, a tidy collection of bird eggs has made its way across the world. The collection’s final resting place just so happens to be here at Te Papa, where Natural History intern Isabella Milner has steadily worked through cataloguing it, and packing the eggs away into their forever homes. Here she describes how eggs are identified despite having very little information to go on.Read more
2021-06-21
Extinct snail Chilonopsis melanoides – from the Atlantic to Aotearoa
While rummaging through cabinets, Curator Invertebrates Rodrigo Salvador found a two-centimetre treasure: the shell of an extinct snail from Saint Helena. Here he talks about the ecology of Saint Helena and how the snail ended up in a museum in New Zealand.Read more
2021-06-14
Is the genetic integrity of the world’s rarest kiwi at risk from hybridisation?
The rowi is New Zealand’s rarest kiwi with only about 600 individuals left in the wild in a single population at Ōkārito. A number of suspected hybrids between rowi and little spotted kiwi have been found over the years.Read more
2021-06-09
Searching for rare forget-me-nots with North Island iwi
In December 2020, Te Papa botanists Heidi Meudt and Antony Kusabs were in the field with three North Island iwi: Tamakaimoana, Ngāti Porou, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Worryingly, their search for rare forget-me-nots was unsuccessful. But their collaborative mahi struck a meaningful chord.Read more
2021-06-04
Extreme botany: Southern summer is not for the faint of heart
Neither snow nor rain nor wind nor gloom of night stays these botanists. On a field trip to the South Island in January 2021, botanists Heidi Meudt and Antony Kusabs went to some extreme measures to collect forget-me-nots and other plants for our research and collections.Read more
2021-05-31
What is the real scientific name for great spotted kiwi?
The name Apteryx haastii was applied to great spotted kiwi in 1872. However, a recent study by Researcher Lara Shepherd, Vertebrate Curator Alan Tennyson, and collaborators, has shown that Apteryx haastii is not what we thought it was.Read more
2021-05-27