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Faahi Tapu he Vagahau Niue – Niue Language Week

The 2024 theme for Niue Language Week is ‘Leveki mo e Feaki e Vagahau Niue ma Anoiha – Protect and Nurture Vagahau Niue for the Future’.

Watch: Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss at the ‘Ahu: Ngā Wairua o Hina wānanga

Watch Niuean hiapo artist Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss talk about her work as a hiapo maker and artist.

Men in a field harvesting a plant to eat. There are two men in the foreground carrying a basket between them

View: Photographer Glenn Jowitt's photographs of Niue

Photographer Glenn Jowitt (1955–2014) is best known for his images of Pacific people and their cultures, both in New Zealand and in the Pacific Islands. Look through his photographs of Niue.

A burnt orange woven skirt on a model dummy

Read: Niue posts in our blog

Read our blogs about life on Niue, and items we have in our collections.

Browse the collections from Niue

Named Savage Island by James Cook – because he received an unfriendly reception from native Polynesians – Niue was part of Cook Islands until 1922; official language is English, though a Polynesian dialect is also widely spoken.

Women wearing the same dresses and headwear are sitting in a group. One is playing the guitar and one is singing.

Niue

Discover some of our Niuean stories about our communities and collections from kahoa hihi to katoua, tiputa to titi, the coral atoll to coconut, and more.

What’s on at Te Papa

A crowd of people watching a band play on stage.

After Dark: Kōanga

Celebrate the arrival of spring with a free, adults-only, late-night event. Enjoy live music, workshops, performances, and a cash bar – all in the museum after dark.

Fri 18 Oct 2024, 7.00pm–11.00pm

Event Ngā kaupapa motuhake

Events

Our exciting programme of events runs all year. Watch song and dance performances, join in with kids activities and cultural days, hear from our experts, and much more.

A photo of someone dancing or singing at a darkly lit space with red and blue lighting.

Generation X: 50 Artworks from the Chartwell Collection

Generation X: 50 Artworks from the Chartwell Collection is a big noisy group show featuring contemporary art made by Gen X artists. This exhibition is presented by City Gallery Wellington.

On now

27 July – 20 October 2024

Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga

View of Te Taiao | Nature, with two moa in the foreground and various displays behind

Exhibitions

Celebrate Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique natural environment. See Gallipoli through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders. Hear extraordinary stories from young refugees.

A stylised image of a bird flying over Pacific designs

Commemorating Dawn Raids – 50 years on

‘Ua Tafa Mai Ata, The Darkness has moved away, the light is starting to come in.

Pacific voices reflect on 50 years since the Dawn Raids.

9 and 10 November, 11.00am–4.00pm

Event Ngā kaupapa motuhake

Explore the website – The digital museum

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.

White painted text on black background "I am scared I stand up"

Art

Explore the work of artists such as Robin White, Tiffany Singh, Matt Pine, Colin McCahon, Tony Fomison, and Rita Angus through videos, podcasts, and in-depth articles. Find out about favourite art works from our curators, or see what is in our collections.

A sepia photo of a man in a hammock with two small children on his lap.

Leslie Adkin

Leslie Adkin was a farmer and noted amateur geologist and ethnologist. Photography was also a passion of his, and he documented every aspect of his life, from his family to his scientific interests, from the 1910s until the 1950s. Explore some of the Leslie Adkin collection.

A black and white photo of a museum with everything jammed in together.

Museum collecting: Acknowledging our Colonial past

Our national museum’s history began in 1865, and early documentation wasn't as thorough or careful as it is today. Curator Mātauranga Māori Amber Aranui takes us back to this creatively documented time and what it means for tracking our collection items.

Watch: Kōrero – Mana Wāhine, Mana Taonga

Watch the kōrero from wāhine Māori as they discuss the importance of wāhine representation in Māori arts, and what has shifted since the 1984 international exhibition, Te Maori.

Underside of a fern frond with brown seed pods

Botany

Te Papa’s botanical collections and research encompass marine algae (seaweeds), lichens, mosses, liverworts, lycophytes, ferns, and seed plants.

Black and white photo of Three unknown women using office equipment. Boxes of accounting machine cards are piled up on the floor.

Experiment to plug Te Papa collections into ChatGPT

Collections Data Manager Gareth Watkins describes his experiments with ways Generative AI can tell richer stories and enable deeper connections to our collection database.

A black rectangle with a faint Māori design in the background with words in silver that say Te Maori 40th Anniversary

Te whakaaturanga o Te Maori – Toi Māori ki te ao

From 1984 to 1986, the exhibition Te Maori was a pivotal moment in Māori cultural revival showcasing traditional artwork on the international stage. It is widely acclaimed as an exhibition that changed the way that museums and art galleries interpreted and managed taonga Māori.

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