Lya Riley passed away on 18 May, 2024, aged 103. In 2022, Lya generously gifted Te Papa a collection of treasures from her early years in Austria and her married life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here, Curator New Zealand Histories and Cultures Katie Cooper shares some of Lya’s story and looks back on a very special day spent with Lya and her whānau.Read more
Conservator Textiles Anne Peranteau recently completed the conservation treatment of an important Tongan ngatu hingoa, or barkcloth, that commemorates the WWII war effort of Queen Salote Tupou III and the Tongan people. Read more
A faded embroidery shines again with the help of Photoshop. Textiles conservator Anne Peranteau discusses the process of digitally restoring colour to a faded Egyptian souvenir from World War II.Read more
On 23 September an exciting new exhibition opened at the National Museum of Singapore called Witness to War: Remembering 1942. Ten objects from Te Papa were sent to Singapore to be featured in the exhibition. In this blog history curator Katie Cooper shares the story of the Pether family, and explainsRead more
On 23 September an exciting new exhibition opened at the National Museum of Singapore called Witness to War: Remembering 1942. Ten objects from Te Papa were sent to Singapore to be featured in the exhibition. History curator Katie Cooper shares some of the stories from the exhibition and discusses the significanceRead more
Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa is Te Papa’s exhibition about four crucial social and political changes that occurred in New Zealand after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and before the millennial panic of ‘Y2K’ (‘Year 2000’). I hope that the exhibition, which closes on 23rd January toRead more
Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa is Te Papa’s exhibition about life in New Zealand after the death of Queen Victoria and before the unnecessary panic of Y2K (‘Year 2000’). It’s closing on 23rd January to make room for the new art gallery spaces that are opening at the endRead more
Librarian Christine Kiddey discusses The housewife’s guide to making and mending published in WWII and the amusing annotations left my its owner. Read more
70 years ago, 48 Japanese prisoners of war are killed during a riot at the Featherston prisoner of war camp (25 February 1943) From 1942, Japanese prisoners of war were brought to New Zealand and interned at the camp at Featherston, in the Wairarapa. This camp had previously been used as aRead more
Seventy one years ago, New Zealand declares war on Japan after the bombing of the US naval bases at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii (8 December 1941) The bombing of Pearl Harbour set the Pacific War in motion. This event and Japan’s subsequent expansion through the Philippines, Thailand and the Malaysian peninsula,Read more
In conjunction with the exhibition Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria & Albert Museum, Dr Gabrielle Fortune will present an illustrated lecture on how wartime austerity impacted on wedding fashion at Te Papa this Sunday at 2pm. Specifically, she will be looking at the wedding dresses of womenRead more
This week’s wedding dress is a recent acquisition – one which caused much excitment amongst Te Papa’s History team when it arrived. Wholly romantic in design, this dress is made from a Second World War silk parachute. It was made for Carol Gifford by members of her family, for her marriage toRead more
56 years ago New Zealanders celebrate victory over Japan (15 August 1945) The photo below shows people celebrating VJ (Victory over Japan) Day in Wellington. It was taken by John Pascoe, who was employed by the government to photograph life in New Zealand during World War Two. The day markedRead more
This is the first in an ongoing series of blogs about New Zealand history. These blogs are going to focus on 20th century events and objects as well as topics in Te Papa’s history exhibition Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa. Following from the recent blog about the diarama in the exhibtionRead more
It’s just 2 weeks now since Slice of Heaven opened and the word from Te Papa’s hosts is that it’s “what New Zealanders have been waiting for!” This is my first blog – ever. I was one of the team working behind the scenes to bring the stories from 20th CenturyRead more
