Māori Language Week 2014! To celebrate the Te Papa Education team offered teachers something new, as 37 teachers from all over Wellington, ranging from ECE to intermediate school, joined together to grow and support Te Reo Māori in the classroom. We played a range of kēmu to get the blood and the brain pumping,Read more

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In: Education, Māori

New Zealand’s Governor, Lord Liverpool, announced the state of war with Germany under the central arch on the steps of Parliament (see above) on 5 August 1914. People assembled there to hear the news responded with ‘a cheer that displayed the tense emotions of the crowd…Hats and hands were raisedRead more

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In: History

This week is Cook Islands language week 2014. The theme for the week is ‘Te Rakei o Toku Iti-Tangata’ – Our language and our culture are the foundation of who we are. Looking after cultural treasures is a significant part of Te Papa’s role in the community. We have aRead more

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In: Pacific, Photography

There has been an awesome collaborative project happening in StoryPlace as part of our Matariki programme! The response has been absolutely huge! With kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as our theme for 2014, we wanted to give tamariki (children) and their whānau (family and friends) the opportunity to acknowledge, discuss and share the role they playRead more

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In: Education, Māori

It is with sadness and regret that we learned that photographer Glenn Jowitt died suddenly on 22nd July. Glenn is best known for his photography of Pacific people and their cultures, both in New Zealand and in the Pacific Islands. Glenn was born in 1955 in Upper Hutt. He studied artRead more

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In: Art, Pacific, Photography

On Sunday we’ll be saying goodbye to our multimedia exhibition OurSpace to make room for the next exciting step towards Te Papa’s flagship exhibition commemorating 100 years since WWI. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed images and videos to OurSpace, which opened in 2008. More than 10,000 images and videos wereRead more

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In: History

For many of New Zealand’s indigenous plants, the Māori name is the ‘common’ name, and English names are rarely, if ever, used; think rimu, tōtara, kauri, pōhutukawa, and mamaku. Other species have both Māori and English names, but it is the latter that is predominant, at least in my experience.Read more

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In: Māori, Science

This coming August marks a climax of Te Papa’s Berry Boys soldier identification project, with the screening of a documentary on seven of the soldiers on TVNZ in early August (details to come), and the launch of Berry Boys: Portraits of First World War Soldiers and Families by Te Papa Press. The latter bringsRead more

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In: History

When I was nine or ten I used to go to Jenkins Gym in Manners St, Wellington on Saturday mornings with a friend. I hated it but I suspect our respective fathers thought we needed toughening up. The good bit was that after the long trolley bus trip home (noRead more

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This week we are changing over a number of garments in The WOW Factor, an exhibition celebrating the wonderful, creative and inventive World of WearableArt™. The exhibition itself has been extended to 2 November 2014 so that this year’s show attendees can also enjoy seeing a number of garments up closeRead more

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In: Art, Behind the scenes

By Rebecca Nuttall, intern “Banana playing a blue accordion.” What? My name is Rebecca Nuttall. I’ve been an intern at Te Papa and I’m describing this print to you. You’re going to love it. That’s not true. You may hate it. But how would you know? I don’t think youRead more

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In: Art