In a collaboration between National Services Te Paerangi and Whanganui Regional Museum, Te Papa’s bicultural researcher Hokimate Harwood brought her extensive feather identification skills to a community of 30 weavers and bird enthusiasts earlier this year. Hokimate’s feather identification research looks to decode materials and messages within kākahu | featherRead more

One of the core roles of Te Papa is to continue to acquire taonga that enhance and add-value to its existing collections. And with more than 30,000 individual items in the Matauranga Māori collections, Te Papa’s collections are considerable. And even though a considerable number of that total is madeRead more

Joy Anderson enthralling Te Papa hosts

After being away from work for over two months it was such a joy to see the Kahu Ora exhibition again. Over 48,000 people have visited so far in the two and a half months since its opening.  That’s really amazing. One of the aims of this exhibition was to bringRead more

When taonga are brought out of the stores and into the light, they have a transformative power on their descendants. This tangible feeling is elicited immediately when you enter Kahu Ora: Living Cloaks. At the opening of the exhibition, I entered the gallery to the sound of karakia reverberating aroundRead more

Kakahu online Maori cloaks

  The scholarship, creativity, professionalism, enthusiasm, commitment and sheer hard work of the Kahu Ora: Living Cloaks team came to fruition today in the VISA gallery, and tomorrow will be on view to the public. It’s a very beautiful exhibition, and visitors will love to be transported into Te WhareRead more