History team

Claire Regnault

Senior Curator New Zealand Histories and Cultures

Claire Regnault has worked in the art gallery and museum sector since the mid-1990s. While her curatorial practice has encompassed art, design and popular culture, her research interests lie primarily in New Zealand’s dress histories and associated industries. Claire is president of the Costume & Textile Association of New Zealand, and represents Te Papa on the Eden Hore Central Otago steering group.

She is the author of several books on fashion history, including Dressed: Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1910 (Te Papa Press, 2021) which won the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Selected bibliography:

Books

• Central Otago Couture: the Eden Hore Collection with Jane Malthus and Derek Henderson (Te Papa Press, 2025)

• Flora: Celebrating Our Botanical World (Te Papa Press, 2023), edited by Carlos Lehnebach et al.

• Tiny Statements: A social history of Aotearoa New Zealand in badges (Te Papa Press, 2023) with Stephanie Gibson.

• Dressed: Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1910 (Te Papa Press, 2021)

• The Dress Circle: New Zealand Fashion Design Since 1940 (Godwit, 2010) with Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Lucy Hammonds

• The New Zealand Gown of the Year (HBCT, 2003)

Stephanie Gibson

Curator New Zealand Histories and Cultures

Stephanie’s research interests include the material and visual culture of protest and activism, as well as everyday life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her museological research focuses on museums and community participation.

Stephanie co-authored the award-winning Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of resistance, persistence and defiance (Te Papa Press, 2019), with Puawai Cairns and Matariki Williams, which won Best Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. With Claire Regnault, she recently co-authored Tiny Statements: A social history of Aotearoa New Zealand in badges (Te Papa Press, 2023).

Selected bibliography:

• First wave collecting – Christchurch Terror Attacks, 15 March 2019, Shannon Blaymires and Stephanie Gibson, Curator: The Museum Journal, 66: 2 (2023)

• Evaluation of Contraception: Uncovering the collection of Dame Margaret Sparrow, Stephanie Gibson, Tuhinga 29 (2018)

• ‘Let’s talk about sex’: visitor comments in Contraception: Uncovering the collection of Dame Margaret Sparrow, Stephanie Gibson, Curator, Vol. 60, No. 1: 47-65 (2017)

• The Mixing Room project at Te Papa: co-creating the museum with refugee background youth in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Stephanie Gibson and Sara Kindon, Tuhinga 24 (2013)

• First World War posters at Te Papa, Stephanie Gibson, Tuhinga 23 (2012)

• Representing community exhibitions at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Stephanie Gibson and Sean Mallon, Tuhinga 21 (2010)

• Display folk: Second World War posters at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Stephanie Gibson, Tuhinga 19 (2008)

• Engaging in Mischief: The Black Singlet in New Zealand Culture.  In Looking Flash: Clothing of Aotearoa New Zealand, Stephanie Gibson (edited by Bronwyn Labrum, Fiona McKergow and Stephanie Gibson), Auckland University Press (2007)

• Kiri’s Dresses: an exhibition about an iconic New Zealander: Tuhinga 16 | Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Stephanie Gibson, Tuhinga 16: 1-12 (2005)

• Te Papa and New Zealand's Indian communities - a case study about exhibition development: Tuhinga 14 | Collections Online - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Stephanie Gibson, Tuhinga, 14: 61-75 (2003)

Katie Cooper

Curator New Zealand Histories and Cultures

Katie Cooper’s research interest lies in the material culture of domestic life, focusing in particular on nineteenth-century New Zealand. She is also engaged in ongoing research into the social and cultural history of rural New Zealand.

Katie co-authored Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2024); a finalist in the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction.

Her latest book, Rēwena and Rabbit Stew: The Rural Kitchen in Aotearoa, 1800-1940 (Auckland University Press, 2024) explores how cooking and food practices shaped the daily lives, homes and communities of rural Pākehā and Māori throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Katie is co-Editor of Tuhinga, Te Papa’s open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal

Grace Gassin (Lîm Sò͘-chin 林素真)

Curator Asian New Zealand Histories

Grace’s overarching focus is on highlighting the diverse historical and contemporary experiences of New Zealand’s many Asian diaspora communities. Her wide-ranging interests also encompass the politics of inclusion and interpretation that frame our understandings of Asian diaspora histories, and transnational dimensions of Asian Australasian diaspora experiences.

Honorary Research Associates

Chanel Clarke

Chanel Clarke (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Porou, and Waikato) is a highly respected curator and museum professional in Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural heritage sector. Her research focuses on how Māori material culture has evolved through cross-cultural encounters, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. She has a deep interest in Māori dress and textiles, exploring both their traditional roots and contemporary significance. She is passionate about the stories objects can tell – especially how they reflect resilience, innovation, and the shaping of Māori futures in colonial times.

She is currently working with Lizzie Bisley, Stephanie Gibson, and Claire Regnault on Fashioning the Modern Woman: 1920 to 1949 (working title).

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