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
• 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'
• Rātana Church and Mita Ririnui: The colours of service
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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.

• Watch: Tour of Te Taiao | Nature for Māori Language Week
• He Paki Taonga i a Māui
• Matariki: The Māori New Year
• The Treaty of Waitangi
• Te reo Māori quiz
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Pacific

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

• Tatau: Sāmoan tattoo
• Tokelau
• Quiz: Tongan Language Week
• George Crummer: Picturing the Cook Islands
• Cricket, Pacific style
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Science and nature

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

• Fossils, dinosaurs, and taniwha
• Birds of New Zealand
• Botany
• Spiders and insects
• The deep sea
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History

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

• Listen: New Zealand’s Mid-Century Public Art panel talk
• Making Histories: Communities and Covid-19
• Panel Talk: Housing for Health, Happiness, and Justice
• LGBTQI+ histories of Aotearoa New Zealand
• Voyage and discovery in the Pacific
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Art

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

• ‘Finale: Bouquet’
• ‘Finales represent an end, and as such tend to be celebratory in tone’ – Nike Savvas on ‘Finale: Bouquet’
• All About “Eve”: Rodin’s masterpiece
• Art and wellbeing with Tiffany Singh, Ella Brewer, Catherine Spence, and Martin Awa Clarke Langdon
• A child’s interpretation of Frank Craig’s ‘Goblin market’
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Antiracism and activism

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

• Watch: Stories of perseverance, from Parihaka to Polynesian Panthers
• Decolonise or indigenise: moving towards sovereign spaces and the Māorification of New Zealand museology
• Protest movements in our collections
• Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance
• Objects from Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance
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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.

• History and origins of New Zealand’s vertebrates

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

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?
• The language of agile methodology in te reo Māori: being kakama
• 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
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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!