We’re very excited to introduce All That Remains: WWI objects in New Zealand museum collections | He Waihotanga Iho mai i te Pakanga Tuatahi – www.allthatremains.net.nz In July, the world marks the centenary of the beginning of World War I (WWI). New Zealand’s museums hold many memories of wartime through the objects in their collections…. Read more »
Objets trouvés : Signs of humanity at Ohinau Island.
Recent work on Ohinau Island, Coromandel reinforced for me how fine the boundary is between the sciences. We were working on the biology of shearwaters nesting at an important historical site for Ngati Hei, an iwi from the eastern Coromandel. The island has been inhabited in the past, and was an important food gathering site… Read more »
Te Papa Remembers Michael Volkerling
E te rangatira, e te totara haemata, e te pou matua i whakapau kaha ki te tiaki i nga mahi toi me nga whare pupuri taonga o Aotearoa, haere, haere, haere atu ra. Kua ripia kua haehaea mai te tau o te ate i te mamae, i te paapouri o te ngakau i te rongotanga… Read more »
Watching goldfish in the nude: Thomas Benjamin Kennington’s Idlesse
Is the painting Idlesse by Thomas Benjamin Kennington (1856–1916) a late Victorian time-bomb, which would have delighted intellectual guru Michel Foucault, author of The History of Sexuality? Or is it an unjustly overlooked, chaste, white masterpiece, a victim of prudery and puritanism in its lack of exposure since its acquisition by the New Zealand Academy… Read more »
One week to talk on the Trekka
On Thursday 26 June Te Papa hosts a talk by journalist Todd Niall who discusses the Trekka – the vehicle and the art work. In the run up to the talk we’re collecting memories of the Trekka vehicle – good and bad. What did you think of it? Email your recollections, opinions, anecdotes or even… Read more »
Her Majesty’s bloomers
Among the many treasures in the textiles collection at Te Papa there is one very large pair of drawers (or bloomers). These drawers were owned by Queen Victoria. After her death in 1901, Queen Victoria’s underwear was distributed to members of the Royal Household. This particular pair was owned by Lady Louisa Seddon, wife of… Read more »
The Iberian lynx and its unique louse
By Ricardo L. Palma, Curator of Terrestrial Invertebrates Managing the survival and conservation of animal species which are in danger of extinction has become a widespread activity in many parts of the world. Until now, most of the conservation effort has been concentrated on birds and mammals, probably because they are relatively large, popular, warm… Read more »
Whiti Te Rā! The Story of Ngāti Toa Rangatira – now open!
Kia ora koutou. The exhibition opening and celebratory weekend was amazing. Thank you to all the many people of Ngāti Toa Rangatira who helped make this day happen. Also our acknowledgements to our past iwi in residence, and all those who came to the dawn opening, travelling from far and wide. There were over a thousand people in… Read more »
Nostalgia for the Future
If you are feeling nostalgic you are probably sentimentally yearning for a period in the past – for a happy, simpler time. But the past often thinks about the future, and its sometimes naïve and romantic imaginations can make you feel nostalgic too. Here’s Bernard Roundhill 1956 vision of Auckland in the year 2000. How we loved transport… Read more »
Paula Green: The Life of a Poem
At the end of 2013, Te Papa started working on a series of creative responses to Colin McCahon’s Walk (Series C) (1973) – long an artistic trigger. We approached poet and writer Greg O’Brien who agreed to work with us. Greg contacted some of New Zealand’s most well-known poets. Over the summer, they wrote and… Read more »