Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand

Voyage and discovery in the PacificTe rerenga, te kitenga i te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa

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.

Pacific tūpuna of Māori first journeyed to this whenua 800–900 years ago. Following this were toro by two notable Europeans: some 400 years later, in 1642, when Abel Tasman became the first European to visit our shores, and then, in 1769, when Captain James Cook and his Endeavour landed near what is now known as Gisborne. These encounters have fuelled conflicting and complicated histories.

Here, explore Pacific exploration and European colonisation through our taongakōrero, and events.

Pacific voyagers

  • Sailing vessel

    Voyagers: Discovering the Pacific

    Voyagers: discovering the Pacific, was an exhibition that opened at Te Papa in 2002.  Read articles and browse collection objects related to voyaging in the Pacific.

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    Kupe

    Kupe is an important ancestor to the Māori people, and in many but not all iwi narratives he is accredited with being the first Polynesian to discover the islands of Aotearoa New Zealand.

  • Black and white photograph of French Pass, Marlborough

    Kupe Sites: A photographic journey

    A thousand years ago, the great voyager Kupe made an epic journey from the eastern Pacific across the ocean to a new land. Learn about the stories of his arrival in Aotearoa.

  • manu-rere-moana-tile.jpg

    Manu Rere Moana

    The navigation of the Pacific by waka hourua | double-hulled sailing waka is one of the great achievements of human technology. This exhibition celebrates the mātauranga of celestial navigation that enabled these extraordinary voyages.

    On now

    Permanent exhibition

    Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

European voyagers

Many voices: Responding to collected taonga and challenging colonial views

  • Drawing of Captain Cook and a Māori meeting

    Many voices: Challenging colonial views of New Zealand and the Pacific

    The complications of the word ‘traditional’? Why ‘reMāorification’ is a better word than ‘decolonisation’. How contemporary artists are retelling the inherited Pākehā-dominant histories of our nation. The collision of cultures. Read articles written by Te Papa staff.

  • Two people are holding a banner that says 'Ahu-Nga Wairua o Hina

    ‘Ahu: Ngā wairua o Hina – Tapa workshops in Tahiti

    After acquiring a book of tapa samplers collected by Alexander Shaw that represents tapa-making practices from various islands in the Pacific, tapa makers, Te Papa curators, and our Senior Librarian, gathered together in Tahiti for a wānanga (workshop) to explore and respond to the samplers in the book.