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 the original 8 colours of the Gilbert Barker rainbow flag, green symbolises nature and yellow symbolises sunlight. In this section you'll find stories exploring the nature of our community, our connection to te Taiao and our inner natures.
Celebrate our trans and indigenous whānau and all the people who bring sunlight into our lives.
Thu 4 Sep 2025
Five years after Wellington’s debut Vogue Ball, the creative capital will host its largest celebration of ballroom culture. Presented by The Kiki House of Marama, OVĀ Collective and Te Papa, a dazzling programme of events will commemorate five years of the growing Wellington Ballroom scene.
Press release He pānui pāpāho
Master’s student Felix Stribling unpacks their research into Aotearoa New Zealand’s queer heritage collections and the importance of centring queer and takatāpui voices in GLAMs (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums).
Explore taonga related to takātapui in Te Papa Collections Online.
Watch five interviews with eight Pasifika women examining the trope of the sensual ‘dusky maiden’ and the cultural significance of flowers in the Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Pacific Islands. Explore further through blog articles responding to the films, Te Papa collection images, and Pacific writing and media.
Artist and activist Luisa Tora shares the story of a treasured salusalu (necklace) and its intrinsic connection with her matavuvale (family).
Rex Letoa is a Sāmoan/French fa‘atama poet. A keen observer of the world around him, as well as the world inside of him. His poetry and storytelling act as a wayfinding tool back to his cultural and gender identity.
‘I, a Sāmoan gay, queer man came to know myself as not quite Pacific enough or not qwhite queer enough to be considered a central concern.’ Seuta‘afili Dr Patrick Thomsen reflects on his coming-of-age in Queen City.
Lindah Lepou talks about being a fa’faafine designer, her spirituality, and the evolution of Pacific and Māori couture.
Historian Will Hansen explores some of the many forms of trans resistance throughout history, illustrated by objects held in Te Papa collections.
Trans people from their teens to their 70s were asked to identify objects of personal importance and to share the objects’ stories. What emerged was a quirky collection that is a testament to the diversity of trans experiences, and which disrupts established (and cis-written) narratives about trans lives.
Lauren Lysaght’s mixed media work Hidden Agender is inspired by the life of Eugenia Falleni (about 1875–1938), a woman who presented herself as man in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and whose life was placed under the microscope in 1920 when she was charged with murder and ‘sex fraud’.
Carmen Rupe (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Heke-a-Wai, 1936-2011) was a flamboyant transgender woman, performer, business owner, and anti-discrimination activist who became a cultural icon in New Zealand and Australia.
This travelling collection of objects belonged to Mani Bruce Mitchell (MNZM). Each object is a touchstone of memory and symbolic power.
A day without lesbians is a day without sunshine.
Art historian Joanne Drayton explores the unconventional life of painter Frances Hodgkins, arguing that absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence.
These miniature works of knitted art hail from Invercargill, and might just be the ultimate Kiwiana tribute to two of New Zealand’s most popular characters – Camp Mother and Camp Leader, the creations of Lynda and Jools Topp – the Topp Twins.
Poet Dani Yourukova responds to Daisy Tinney's photography in Te Papa collections.
This portrait of Rodney Kennedy was painted by Toss Woollaston in 1936. The two men met at art school in Dunedin, and became lovers in 1932. After Toss’ marriage in 1936, they remained life-long friends. Chris Brickell tells their story.
The revealing letters of a great New Zealand landscape artist – riveting to read and generously illustrated.
