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
ANZAC refers to the soldiers from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia who served in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during the First World War and were initially formed in 1915 to participate in the Gallipoli invasion. Over 100,000 New Zealanders served in World War I, with more than 18,000 losing their lives and around 41,000 listed as injured. Later, over 140,000 New Zealanders would serve overseas in the Second World War, with around 11,900 losing their lives.
Anzac Day is held annually on April 25 as a national day of remembrance to commemorate those who served and those who died in all international wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.
The Anzac poppy is the most powerful symbol relating to the impact of war in Aotearoa New Zealand society and is usually worn the day before and on Anzac Day, 25 April, and can also be seen at major commemorative events, military funerals, war graves and cemeteries in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world.
Primary, Secondary
Explore our exhibition Gallipoli: The Scale of our War and the stories of those who witnessed the campaign from the front lines.
Please note: Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War is temporarily closed from 21 July to 12 September for essential maintenance and upgrades. It will open to the public again on Saturday 13 September.
Education visit
Hear a talk by historian Jay Winter, exploring the ‘Kodak revolution’ of World War I and the extensive trail of unofficial photography that ensued.
Read about the research, records and stories of Māori at World War I as part of the New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion, or Native Contingent and Pioneer Battalion, that went on to be the 28th Māori Battalion in World War II.
New Zealand recruited men from its colonies and the wider Pacific to fight in both world wars. In the First World War, men from the Cook Islands and Niue enlisted in the New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion. They were joined by recruits from Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (Kiribati and Tuvalu).
World War I saw the mutilation of men’s bodies on an unprecedented scale: around 1,000 New Zealand servicemen had limbs amputated due to the horrendous effects of shellfire and ‘gas gangrene’. We have a collection of 28 exhibition prints showing limbless men attending the workshops and other facilities at Oatlands Park.
In 1918, the New Zealand army commissioned photographs of servicemen who had lost limbs during the war. This was part of a government scheme to show that these men were still competent and employable.
Read about personal experiences, recruitment, memorials, and conscientious objection during World War I.
This ground-breaking exhibition tells the story of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances.
Temporarily closed
Temporarily closed. Reopening Sat 13 September
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
The story of a defining campaign and a monumental exhibition.
Twelve thousand New Zealand soldiers died in World War I. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in remembering the soldiers who lost their lives so far from home. The mementoes of one soldier represent those who were not able to leave anything behind to tell of where, when and how they died.
An armistice (truce) between Germany and the Allies was signed in France on 11 November 1918 (although the First World War did not officially end until June 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed). This occurred on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
War posters were flashes of intense colour in towns and cities throughout New Zealand during the Second World War (1939-45).
There are many types of artefacts related to the First World War besides the uniforms of servicemen, their medals, and military hardware. World War I also influenced the objects that New Zealanders made or used in their day-to-day lives, and exchanged as gifts. Te Papa holds a range of examples of these types of items in its collections.
Stories about soldiers and their studio portraits taken by Wellington photographer William Berry just before they left for training camps and the battlefields of WWI.
These topics illustrate the breadth and nature of Te Papa's WWI-related collections.
View photos, people, and ephemera connected to Gallipoli in our collections.
August 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the occupation of Samoa by New Zealand troops. It was the first military action of New Zealanders in the first world war.
This is a metal badge made for troops of the Cook Islands Company of the New Zealand army in the First World War. It is modelled after the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion Badge and features the face of a Maori warrior wearing a solid necklace that joins the tips of two ferns.
This paper by Curator New Zealand Histories and Cultures Stephanie Gibson examines a collection of international First World War posters held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), in terms of its provenance, reception and display at the end of, and in the years immediately after, the First World War (1914–19).
Research Assistant Alexander Gordon looks into New Zealand soldiers in Sāmoa in the First World War as part of the Mapping Sāmoa project.
A national initiative, Online Cenotaph is a biographical database that allows researchers, enthusiasts, and veterans and their families to explore, contribute to, and share the records and stories of those who served for Aotearoa New Zealand. This link goes to the Auckland Museum website.
