Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Turquoise is the stripe of the Gilbert Barker rainbow flag symbolising art and magic. In this section you'll find art by our community, for our community. From poetry, photography, illustration, to fiber arts, fashion, and vogue ballroom.
OVĀ is an emerging QIPOC-led collective based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, creating spaces for performance art, activation, activism and exploration. Born through Ballroom, the collective exists to grow themselves and others through creativity, artistry and telling untold stories with radical joy, katas and love.
OVĀ Collective share about the history of Ballroom, how it came to Aotearoa, and the influence of Ballroom in media.
An underground queer subculture transformed into a global sensation, the magic of Ballroom has spread to fashion, music, screen and stage carrying queer voices and stories along the way.
Manfred Manglicmot (AKA Prince Sphynx Marama from the House of Marama) explores Ballroom's wider impact outside of the Ball.
From humble beginnings to mainstream stages, the journey of the Aotearoa Ballroom scene is a testament to the resilience of queer Māori, MVPFAFF+, and POC communities.
Carym Wharerau (AKA Trailblazing Founding Mother Karamera Marama) delves into the rich history of Aotearoa Ballroom and its journey from once being an underground community to stepping into the mainstream spotlight.
The world of Ballroom has a rich history tied to oppression, political resistance and queer freedom. Before the worldwide phenomenon infiltrated the media and pop culture of today, Ballroom was an underground subculture born out of necessity and survival.
Manfred Manglicmot (AKA Prince Sphynx Marama from the House of Marama) explores Ballroom culture's underground roots in Harlem, New York, detailing how Houses and Ballroom categories were created as a means for self-expression and survival.
Thu 4 Sep 2025
Five years after Wellington’s debut Vogue Ball, the creative capital will host its largest celebration of ballroom culture. Presented by The Kiki House of Marama, OVĀ Collective and Te Papa, a dazzling programme of events will commemorate five years of the growing Wellington Ballroom scene.
Press release He pānui pāpāho
These poets and writers have responded to taonga in Te Papa collections with works of their own.
Poet Dani Yourukova responds to Daisy Tinney’s photography in Te Papa collections.
Poet essa may ranapiri responds to three pou kātua (stockade post figure) in our collection.
Rex Letoa is a Sāmoan/French fa‘atama poet. A keen observer of the world around him, as well as the world inside of him. His poetry and storytelling act as a wayfinding tool back to his cultural and gender identity.
“I don’t know why I’m drawn to this object so much, but a silver ring fished out of your womb feels romantic.”
Vanessa Mei Crofskey offers personal reflections inspired by a Chinese intrauterine device (IUD) in Te Papa’s History Collection.
Fiona Clark is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated art photographers. In this essay, she recalls her time as an art student in Auckland in the early 1970s, when she began to take photographs of the people and the night life around her.
Drag performer Johnny Croskery’s album from the 1960s includes photographs taken at the Dorian Society’s annual fancy dress balls in the 1960s. In this excerpt from ‘Mates & Lovers’, Chris Brickell explores the origins of the Dorian Society.
Art historian Joanne Drayton explores the unconventional life of painter Frances Hodgkins, arguing that absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.
This portrait of Rodney Kennedy was painted by Toss Woollaston in 1936. The two men met at art school in Dunedin, and became lovers in 1932. After Toss’ marriage in 1936, they remained life-long friends. Chris Brickell tells their story.
Art historian David Maskill explores the surrealist vision of painter Felix Kelly.
In Louise Henderson’s Les deux amies, two female lovers are intimately entwined in a series of delicate interlocking planes. Their embrace is gentle, but their bodies are strong and angular, broken up into geometric facets like roughly hewn marble statues. Never before in New Zealand had two women been painted quite like this.
This comic was created by queer trans illustrator, comic creator, and designer Sam Orchard after seeing the exhibition Poutokomanawa: The Carmen Rupe Generation at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington, in 2019.
Lindah Lepou talks about being a fa’faafine designer, her spirituality, and the evolution of Pacific and Māori couture.
In 1998 Neil Anderson and Michael Eyes gifted a collection of over 20 queer-themed T-shirts to Te Papa from the 1980s and 1990s. Neil Anderson recalls his time as a queer activist before the Human Rights Act of 1993, which made it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation.
Ngila Dickson one of the makers of Xena's costume, and History Curator Claire Regnault, discuss the creation of Xena, how she changed New Zealand's film industry, and how she became an international feminist icon.
Xena: Warrior Princess was an all-action TV series with extreme costumes. In this episode of Tales From Te Papa, host Riria discovers what caught the imagination of Xenites.
This digital portrait of Chris Parker shows the popular New Zealand comedian wearing the results of his creative response to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.
