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
In 2019, Rachel Yates (Vaisala, Savaii), then Curator Pacific Cultures, lead the acquisition of one of Alexander Shaw’s tapa samplers into our collection. The samplers represent tapa-making practices from various islands including Hawai‘i, Tahiti and Tonga and was presented as a gift by the Te Papa Foundation, purchased with Charles Disney Art Trust funds.
In 2023, ‘Ahu: ngā wairua o Hina, a wānanga attended by makers, Te Papa curators, and our Senior Librarian, was held in Tahiti to explore and respond to the samplers in the book.
In the first of four blogs about this kaupapa, Senior Curator Pacific Histories and Cultures Sean Mallon introduces the continuation of this project and the wānanga that happened in Tahiti late 2023.
Watch interviews with the artists and makers of tapa talking about how they started tapa making, where they are with the practice now, and sharing what their work means to them.
In the second blog in this series, Rebecca and Martin talk about the sampler, how it got here, and what it means for communities now.
Mātauranga Māori Curator Isaac Te Awa and Co-Director Pauline Reynolds take us through some of the makers’ reactions to the Shaw book at the 2023 wānanga in Tahiti.
Dr Marine Vallée Assistant curator at Te Fare Iamanaha – Musée de Tahiti et des Îles, talks about welcoming the workshop group and the Shaw sampler book to Tahiti and what it meant to Te Fare Iamanaha.
A catalogue of the different specimens of Pacific barkcloth collected on the three voyages of Captain Cook to the Southern Hemisphere.
The group at ‘Ahu: Ngā Wairua o Hina worked together to re-establish their living relationships to the cloth samples in the Alexander Shaw book and created two tapa bundles, incorporating the ideas of past, present, and future. Today, one of the bundles resides with Te Papa and the other with Te Fare Iamanaha-Musée de Tahiti et des Îles. View taonga (treasures) in the Te Papa bundle.
