Faultlines: Earthquakes in Aotearoa New Zealand

Around 20,000 shakes are measured every year in Aotearoa New Zealand – about 55 a day – our whenua (land) never stops shaking. Plates collide. Pressure builds. The land ruptures. How do we cope with living on such shaky ground?

• Canterbury Earthquake collection on Collections Online
• Collecting and remembering: Christchurch earthquakes in our blog
• Canterbury Earthquake Collection
• Watch: Community responses to the Christchurch earthquake
• One shot: Capturing the heart of our new quake house
• View all

Matariki: The Māori New Year

Learn all about Matariki and see our events. Matariki is a time to gather with family and friends to reflect on the past, celebrate the present, and plan for the future.

• What is Matariki?
• Watch: How to find the Matariki star cluster
• Matariki star facts
• Matariki activity book
• The Matariki star cluster – are there seven or nine stars?
• View all

Spiders and insects

Insects, arachnids, myriapods, bugs, creepy-crawlies, moths, butterflies and their allies.

• What spider is that?
• New Zealand’s most popular spiders
• New Zealand Mosquito Census
• The biting truth about white-tailed spiders
• The genius of bugs
• View all

Colossal squid

All you’d want to know about the colossal squid – from its anatomy, to how it was found.

• Colossal squid at Te Papa
• The anatomy of the colossal squid
• The life and habits of a colossal squid
• The colossal squid activity book
• Watch: Highlights from a colossal squid examination
• View all

Crustaceans of Aotearoa New Zealand

Crustacea includes lobsters, crabs, shrimps, prawns, hoppers, wood lice, water fleas, and several other groups. Most crustaceans live in the sea but some are found in freshwater or on land. The one thing they all need to survive is water, or at least a moist habitat.

• Browse crustaceans in our collection
• Crabzilla! Our terrifying coconut crab is watching you
• Tāruke kōura (crayfish pots) on Collections Online
• Paddling among paddle crabs
• Kōura: The crayfish that brings its own lunch
• View all

Birds of Aotearoa New Zealand

Birds are an important part of New Zealand's nationhood. We are the only nation where the people are often colloquially known by a bird name – ‘Kiwi’.

• Quiz: Can you identify the manu | bird from its feathers?
• North Island brown kiwi
• Birds collection
• New Zealand Birds Online
• Watch: Rediscovering the 'extinct' takahē in 1948
• View all

Community stories: Taking action for nature

River cleaners, tree planters, possum trappers, and climate crusaders. Explore stories from around Aotearoa New Zealand of communities taking care of their natural environment.

• Volunteer for nature
• Preserving forest gems, Piako District, Waikato
• Regenerative farming, Canterbury
• The loneliest tree: Kaikōmako manawatāwhi
• Restoring farm waterways, Mangakahia, Northland
• View all

Rēkohu | Chatham Islands

Rēkohu Chatham Islands are 862 kilometres east of Christchurch and are 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand time. The Chatham Rise, a 1,400-kilometre mostly underwater land mass connects them to New Zealand. Lakes and lagoons cover about a quarter of the biggest island.

• Exhibition: Tchakat Henu – Me Rongo | Moriori – People of Peace
• Explore our collections from Rēkohu Chatham Islands
• Repatriation and return of karāpuna to Rēkohu
• Chatham Island Taiko
• Tales from Te Papa Episode 75: Ancient Island Carvings
• View all

Botany

Te Papa’s botanical collections and research encompass marine algae (seaweeds), lichens, mosses, liverworts, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants.

• Ferns in New Zealand and the Pacific
• Blogs about forget-me-knots (Myosotis)
• A 10-year hunt for a tiny parasitic ghost orchid
• Listen: The Politics of Collecting – from Banks and Solander to Today
• Captain Cook’s 150-year-old kōwhai specimens uncover Rapa Nui (Easter Island) secrets
• View all

The deep sea

Squids, fishes, and creatures of the deep. Te Papa holds the largest and most comprehensive collection in the country, and the largest collection of New Zealand fishes anywhere in the world.

• Colossal squid
• Quiz: New Zealand's ugliest fish
• Fish on Collections Online
• The Fishes of New Zealand poster
• Discovering new species of Mola mola sunfish
• View all

Whales and dolphins

Researching, caring for, photographing, and displaying the whales and dolphins of Aotearoa New Zealand and the South Pacific.

• Hector’s (and Māui) dolphins
• Bottlenose dolphin
• Marine mammals on Collections Online
• Caring for our whale bones
• Whale tooth graffiti – personalised Fijian tabua
• View all

Tokelau

Tokelau is in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawai‘i and Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more about Tokelau through videos, blogs, and an activity book.

• Browse the collections from Tokelau
• Read our blogs about Tokelau
• Weaving in Tokelau: Novena’s story

Asian mental health

Many individuals from Asian diasporas in Aotearoa New Zealand have consistently called for a greater focus on mental health issues. This project responds to this call and aims to highlight various discussions, understandings, and perspectives on mental health of Asian communities in Aotearoa.

• Blog: Unravelling threads: introducing our Asian Mental Health project
• Why Asian mental health matters in Aotearoa
• Zine: Unravelling threads: Asian mental health
• Project: Asian mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand

Watch: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho

Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho is a five-part series looking at the relationships we have as Māori with our taonga today, and with the practice of archiving.

• Watch: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho #1: Lost in the Colonisation Machine
• Watch: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho #2: You Are It, So Live It
• Watch: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho #3: Tukuna Kia Rere
• Watch: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho #4: Repatriation
• Watch: Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho #5: Kaihahu Mahara

The Treaty of Waitangi

It is celebrated and argued over. It contains contradictions, and yet it offers clarity. It has a rocky past, but it is providing New Zealanders with new ways forward. It is the Treaty of Waitangi – this nation’s founding agreement.

• Māori and the British
• The Treaty of Waitangi up close
• Treaty of Waitangi reading and resources
• See the original Treaty of Waitangi
• Treaty of Waitangi learning resources

Studio portrait photography in Aotearoa New Zealand

Studio portraits taken in a professional photographer’s studio – often making use of backdrops or props – were for formal, posed portraits, as well as informal, candid photographs of people, and sometimes their pets.

• Do you know these people? Let us know!
• Digitising studio photography: The Spencer Digby – Ronald D Woolf Lotteries project is underway
• Adding cat pictures to the internet is my job
• Super cool! How the Digby/Woolf Lotteries project keeps negatives safe
• Digitising film negatives: Making the negative positive in the The Digby / Woolf imaging process
• View all

Chinese Languages in Aotearoa

Chinese Languages in Aotearoa is an ongoing project using language to highlight complex issues of cultural identity within various Chinese New Zealand communities. It begins with a series of videos, of people sharing stories of their connection to their heritage Chinese languages, speaking in Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hakka.

• Exploring Asian Aotearoa’s diverse cultures through languages
• Watch: Hakka, with interpreter Henry Liu
• Watch: Cantonese, with publisher and typeface designer Jack Yan
• Watch: Penang Hokkien, with restaurateur Tee Phee
• Watch: Mandarin, with poet Ya-Wen Ho
• View all

Sport in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific

Professional and community-level sport has a long history in Aotearoa New Zealand from team sports to individual achievements. Read about rugby, running, racing, and rowing, along with political crossovers like the 81 tour, international firsts like the Britten Bike, Olympic champions like Peter Snell, and life before the All Blacks.

• See the Britten Bike at Te Papa
• Britten Bike slideshow: removing the fairings
• Lady Pippa Blake and NZL32 AKA Black Magic
• Watch: The Britten Bike with Bob Brookland and Craig Roberts
• On and off the pitch: Cricket and photography
• View all

Sāmoa

Our collections represent stories of Sāmoa and its people. Explore some of our Sāmoan stories about our collections from Apia to Auckland, tatau to travelling umu boxes, headdresses to hip hop, and more.

• Browse the collections from Sāmoa
• Mapping the Sāmoa Collections Project: Collaborations and connections
• Lāuga: Understanding Samoan Oratory
• Going to Te Papa | Asiasiga ‘i le Falemata‘aga i Te Papa
• Blog: Sāmoan Multiplicities: Experiences of Sāmoan-ness
• View all

Tonga

Tonga, officially known as the Kingdom of Tonga, and also known as ‘The Friendly Islands’, is a group of islands in the South Pacific. It is currently the only Pacific country with a constitutional monarchy. Read stories and view our collections in connection to Tonga and the people of Tonga.

• Browse the collections from Tonga
• Face mask Tonga Flag Nifo Gold
• Decorating ngatu (Tongan tapa)
• Fakakoloa ‘o Aotearoa ‘aki ‘a e Ako Lelei (Enriching Aotearoa with holistic education)
• Tongan tattooing: Reconnecting to fonua across time and space through the art of tātatau
• View all

Fiji

Fiji – officially the Republic of Fiji – comprises over 800 islands and the official language is English, though most speak Bauan or Hindustani. Find out more about Fiji through our collections, videos, blogs, and a Fijian language activity book.

• Fijian language activity book
• Browse the collections from Fiji
• View the masi (tapa cloth) from Fiji in our collections
• Whale tooth tales: The Fijian tabua
• Watch: A Whale Tooth Tale - Tales from Te Papa
• View all

Niue

Discover some of our Niuean stories about our communities and collections from kahoa hihi to katoua, tiputa to titi, the coral atoll to coconut, and more.

• Browse the collections from Niue
• Hiapo: Niuean tapa cloth
• Read: Niue posts in our blog
• View: Photographer Glenn Jowitt's photographs of Niue
• Tuhinga 22: Exploring ‘the Rock’: Material culture from Niue Island in Te Papa’s Pacific
• View all

Tatau: Sāmoan tattoo

Explore the history of Sāmoan tatau, watch interviews with people talking about what their tatau means to them, and discover objects and photographs within our collections.

• Photographing Sāmoan tatau (tattoo)
• Watch: Talking Tatau – Mana Wahine Panel
• Watch: Sāmoan New Zealanders talk about their tatau (Sāmoan tattoo)
• Samoan tatau (tattoo) meanings, stories, tools, and history

Voyage and discovery in the Pacific

The history of the discovery of Aotearoa New Zealand goes back a millennium and contains the stories of many fine explorers, from Kupe to Cook. Here, explore Pacific exploration and European colonisation through our taonga, kōrero, and events.

• Watch: Prophecy and the arrival of Captain Cook in ‘Tiwha, Tiwha Te Pō | Dark, Dark is the Night’
• Many voices: Challenging colonial views of New Zealand and the Pacific
• Voyaging the Pacific in Te Papa’s collections
• Colonisation and Impact
• Tuia 250 in the news
• View all

LGBTQI+ histories of Aotearoa New Zealand

Explore queer objects, artworks, and stories in Te Papa’s collections and discover more about the rich histories of Aotearoa New Zealand’s LGBTQI+ communities and icons – including the AIDS Quilt, Carmen Rupe, and Xena: Warrior Princess.

• Salusalu (Fijian necklace) as a touchstone for a father
• Designing the Hero festivals
• ‘Infinite people, infinite colours’: Gilbert Baker’s rainbow
• The Imperial German flag: a symbol of colonisation of the body and gender
• Poem: hands on stomach lizard body
• View all

Making Histories: Communities and Covid-19

Making Histories is a Te Papa project which aims to support visitors and communities around New Zealand to reflect on and share their experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Making Histories: iwi, hapū and whānau Covid-19 Checkpoints – research, reflections, and what next?
• The community coalition bridging the gaps in Aotearoa’s Covid-19 response
• A year since lockdown: Collecting to tell the story of Covid-19
• Aotearoa speaks: Are we a team of five million?
• Migrant and international student perspectives on Covid-19 in Aotearoa
• View all

Fashioning ourselves: clothing, identity and culture

From woollens to workwear, pōtae (hats) to Panamas, feathers to fur, and khakis to korowai (cloaks). Explore stories that highlight the influences, industry, and imagination of fashion in New Zealand through our collections, exhibitions and research.

• Feathermania: Fashion to die for
• Blog: Feathermania: Fashion to die for
• Dressed: Fashionable dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1910
• How to care for textiles and kākahu (Māori cloaks)
• Watch: Designing wedding garments for 'Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion'
• View all

Ferns in New Zealand and the Pacific

Ferns are so prominent in Aotearoa New Zealand, we even wear them on our sporting uniforms. From botany research to citizen science, pressed-fern books of the 1800s to collecting All Blacks and tourism memorabilia, our collectors and curators spend a lot of time with ferns.

• Identify New Zealand’s common tree ferns: ponga, mamaku, kātote, whekī, and whekī ponga
• What is the silver fern?
• King Tawhiao’s fern collection
• Want to learn the scaly tree ferns?
• The significance of the silver fern
• View all

Fossils and dinosaurs

Te Papa’s collections and research on dinosaur bones, animals, and plant fossils from past geological ages, and the people involved in the discovery of their remains.

• Big fossil duck discovered in Central Otago
• Find out about St Bathans' newest fossil duck on Sciblogs
• Fossil vertebrate collection
• Ancient colossal penguin bones discovered in Otago
• Martinborough’s cave of bones: How thousands of flightless birds met their end
• View all

Antiracism and activism

Articles on protest, decolonisation, and antiracism from our experts and across the web.

• Tiny activism: the power of badges
• The Hong Kong protest movement and Aotearoa New Zealand
• 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour – Cardboard and clown suits
• Watch: Stories of perseverance, from Parihaka to Polynesian Panthers
• Decolonise or indigenise: moving towards sovereign spaces and the Māorification of New Zealand museology
• View all

New Zealanders and the British suffrage movement

Find out how New Zealand citizens contributed to the suffrage movement in Britain.

• Who was Frances Parker?
• Who was Lady Anna Stout?
• Marking Suffrage Day – remembering Frances Parker

Māori

Biculturalism. Decolonisation. Mātauranga Māori. Dive into te ao Māori, explore Matariki and our iwi in residence Rongowhakaata, brush up on your reo, and learn how the kiwi lost its wings.

• The Treaty of Waitangi
• Matariki: The Māori New Year
• Te reo Māori at Te Papa
• ‘Museums are dangerous places’ – challenging history
• He Paki Taonga i a Māui
• View all

Pacific

Hear about tatau (Sāmoan tattooing), weaving in Tokelau, browse our Pacific collections online, and read blogs.

• Pacific cultures books
• Browse the collections from the Society Islands
• Browse the collections from the Cook Islands
• Tatau: Tatau Sāmoa
• Tokelau
• View all

Science and nature

Botany, fishes, birds, insects, fossils, molluscs – read about Te Papa's scientific research and stories from leading natural history experts.

• Colossal squid
• Spiders and insects
• Faultlines: Earthquakes in Aotearoa New Zealand
• Taupō supervolcano and caldera
• Fossils, dinosaurs, and taniwha
• View all

History

Read about trans histories, the Moon Landing, colonisation and impact, Edmund Hilary, tiny activism, Scots in New Zealand, and so much more.

• Following the Queen: Brian Brake on tour with Queen Elizabeth II
• Queen Elizabeth II – Her coronation and first visit to New Zealand in 1953
• Leslie Adkin: Photographing the Queen on her visit to New Zealand 1953
• Quiz: How well do you know protest in Aotearoa?
• LGBTQI+ histories of Aotearoa New Zealand
• View all

Art

Explore the work of artists such as Tiffany Singh, Simon Denny, Colin McCahon, and Rita Angus through videos, podcasts, and in-depth articles.

• Watch: Robin White – The making of ‘That Vase’
• Watch: Rita by Quentin Angus
• Studio portrait photography in Aotearoa New Zealand
• Paris Collage Collective Surrealist Dreams showcase
• How to make a dadaist poem
• View all

Audio descriptions

A selection of audio descriptions that have been made for exhibitions at Te Papa.

• Audio descriptive introduction to Mikala Dwyer: The silverings
• in Pursuit of Venus [infected] audio descriptions and transcripts
• Audio descriptions for Rita Angus New Zealand Modernist
• Audio descriptions for Surrealist Art
• Into The Open audio descriptions and transcripts, and accessibility info

Ours: A podcast of twenty Te Papa objects

From Jacinda Ardern’s encounter with the sled of her Antarctic hero, to a nine-year-old boy obsessed with the colossal squid, this new podcast series brings New Zealanders face to face with their favourite objects from Te Papa.

• Te Hau ki Tūranga
• Lady Pippa Blake and NZL32 AKA Black Magic
• 'Isa Lei' the much-loved Pacific song and its power to move
• The Topp Twins and the dolls
• Peter Snell's shoes
• View all

Crown Lynn pottery: A Kiwi icon

A series of articles looking at the social and cultural impact of a one-time ‘essential industry’ and familiar presence in almost all New Zealand homes.

• Crown Lynn domestic ware
• Crown Lynn’s Wharetana range
• Crown Lynn’s artware
• Crown Lynn: Servicing the nation
• Inspired by Crown Lynn
• View all

Te Papa at home

Jigsaw puzzles, activity books, hundreds of hours of videos covering Aotearoa New Zealand’s vast history, quizzes, hubs on specialist topics, whānau challenges, and inspiration points to keep you active at home.

• Surreal activities

Online jigsaw puzzles using our collections

Take a moment or two to relax with online jigsaw puzzles using taonga from our collections. Come back frequently to find new ones!

• Related links for online jigsaw puzzles

Behind the scenes

Explore how exhibitions are created, how we care for our collections, and the research that happens behind-the-scenes.

• Te reo Kiwi: Are you using Māori every day?
• Conserving Rongowhakaata’s fragile ‘Iron Man’
• Cigarette packets and chocolate boxes: How we used to store our collections
• ‘It’s the objects that sparkle, not me’: A day in the life of an art collection manager
• Putting the pieces back together after the earthquake
• View all

Watch: 11 years of Te Papa videos

We’ve been creating videos and posting them on YouTube since 2009, so there’s no shortage of things to watch – from a live squid dissection to kapa haka to curators talking about art, there’s something for everyone. Even brush up on your te reo Māori!

The little page of calm

Relax with a jigsaw or quiz, watch a sunset video from Mahitahi Bruce Bay, or browse animals and other highlights from our collections. 

• Animals from the collections
• New Zealand landscapes
• Teaspoons
• Shoes
• Landscape representations from around the world