Fiordland’s Breaksea Sound: 30 years after the rats
How has the wildlife on these islands responded to more than 30 years without rats? Vertebrates Curator Colin Miskelly reports on a recent field trip to find out.Read more
2020-01-07
Identify New Zealand’s common tree ferns: ponga, mamaku, kātote, whekī, and whekī ponga
Skirts, scales, hexagons, and colour. There are many differences you can look out for if you want to learn how to identify tree ferns.Read more
2019-12-20
New Zealand’s most popular spiders
Spiders! You love ’em. Or perhaps you don’t. Either way, they are the most searched for things on Collections Online. Identification is the most common reason for looking them up, according to feedback, so for putting you all at ease: You’re welcome, Aotearoa. Read on for the most popular spiders of the 2010s.Read more
2019-12-17
How we brought Nike Savvas’ Finale: Bouquet to life
A moment of jubilation, a three-dimensional painting, thousands of fluttering, colourful strands. Hundreds of thousands in fact. Finale: Bouquet represents the culmination of work by Australia artist Nike Savvas and a Te Papa team entrusted with realising her monumental artwork. Here, spatial designer Vioula Said and exhibition preparator Sam Wallis run you through what went into bringing it to life.Read more
2019-12-16
Why a jacket from a fictional gang is in the national museum
In 2017, a jacket worn by the fictional gang Toa Aoteoroa in the 1994 film ‘Once Were Warriors’ entered the national collection. History curator Stephanie Gibson explains why.Read more
2019-12-12
On the way to mastery: Colin McCahon’s Ruby Bay
‘This is the best picture yet painted in this country’ is how Colin McCahon described his Ruby Bay, 1945. Here, author and curator Peter Simpson talks about the growing confidence that McCahon was showing through his correspondence around the time of working on this painting.Read more
2019-11-29
Finding a painting in a landscape: locating the site of ‘Waterfall in Dusky Bay with Maori canoe’
In April 2019, Te Papa acquired a rare, early oil painting by William Hodges, artist on Captain Cook’s second voyage, titled Waterfall in Dusky Bay with Maori Canoe. Here, Te Papa tour host Bill Whelen reflects upon his journeys into Dusky Sound, and finding the exact location of Te Papa’s newly acquired painting.Read more
2019-11-18
Hon Grant Robertson on Colin McCahon’s landscapes: ‘They blew my mind’
The Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Hon Grant Robertson has long been a huge fan of Colin McCahon. Here, he reveals what the artist’s Otago Peninsula in particular means to him.Read more
2019-10-31
Empowering female students into a STEM future
According to TechWomen only 26 percent of those working in New Zealand’s tech sector are women – only 4% above the world average. This statistic shocked educator Jessie Robieson who’s now making it her mission to improve these numbers.Read more
2019-10-30
Reflecting on the Young Feminist Hui – what are the topical issues now?
We catch up with one of the organisers of last year’s Young Feminist Hui, Olivia Trass, to find out what issues she is discussing now, one year on, and what she took away from the hui.Read more
2019-10-09
Getting up close and personal with Colin McCahon’s portrait of Madame Cézanne
Washing a charcoal drawing in water?! Paper conservator Jennie Cauchi takes us behind the scenes of her work to treat a 1950s drawing by Colin McCahon.Read more
2019-09-26
A 10-year hunt for a tiny parasitic ghost orchid
Would you have the patience to spend 10 years trying to find something practically invisible? Botanist Carlos Lehnebach recently discovered his ‘holy grail’ – a collection of tiny ghost orchids in the Wellington region. Read more
2019-09-16
Curious, cute, or edgy: cataloguing old negatives
Olivia Martin, a Master of Museum and Heritage practice program student at Wellington’s Victoria University, spent three months working on a placement at Te Papa. Here she describes her work on a group of photographs.Read more
2019-09-11
Sharing our dolphins with Riverton
Have you ever had to explain to customs at the airport what the odd-looking object is in your hand luggage? Head of Science Susan Waugh explains why she had a Hector’s dolphin skull in her carry-on.Read more
2019-08-28
Colin McCahon’s ‘The Angel of the Annunciation’
Modern Art Curator Lizzie Bisley tells us about what’s happening at Te Papa to celebrate this anniversary, and introduces us to one of her favourite McCahon paintings now on display ‘The Angel of the Annunciation’.Read more
2019-08-23