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
Fiona Pardington (Ngāi Tahu/Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Clan Cameron of Erracht), is regarded as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading contemporary photographers. Her practice is informed by whakapapa and relationships to people, place, history, and te ao Māori.
Explore the artworks, influences, and perspectives that have shaped her approach to artmaking, and consider how her works can be understood as 'mauri-honouring'.
Pardington is the artist representing Aotearoa New Zealand at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (the 2026 Venice Biennale).
The Camera is a living extension of me. I felt drawn to photography because of its ability to bring the past into the future. – Fiona Pardington
Learn more about Fiona Pardington, her art practice, and her artworks. Consider how concepts such as mauri, whakapapa, and cultural significance can deepen interpretation and analysis of her artwork.
Step into the work of renowned Māori photographer Fiona Pardington and you'll discover images that are beautiful, haunting, and deeply contemplative. Her photographs invite us to see familiar objects and themes in new ways – not as disconnected artefacts, but as powerful messengers of whakapapa (ancestry), history, and symbolism.
Fiona Pardington's photography is shaped by her Ngāi Tahu whakapapa (ancestry), te ao Māori, and a deep curiosity for the stories that objects, people, and places can hold. Through careful research and technical skill, her work invites us to reconsider history, memory, and our relationships with the natural world.
This essay, Soul Frequencies by Te Papa Curator Art Megan Tamati-Quennell, was originally published in Fiona Pardington: Taharaki Skyside.
See some artworks by Fiona Pardington held by Te Papa.
Birds can symbolise familial love, romantic attachment, ecological warnings, they can be intimations of mortality, and in my work they can also represent individual people in my life. The ideas I am conjuring remind us of the integral significance of manu within te ao Māori. – Fiona Pardington
Fiona Pardington’s exhibition Te taha o te rangi (2024) was selected to be reimagined for the 61st Venice Biennale as Taharaki Skyside. Learn more about this critically acclaimed exhibition and the Venice Biennale. Explore the ideas, developments, and cultural contexts that shaped this international presentation.
Dr. Fiona Pardington’s Taharaki Skyside is the art exhibition at the Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà representing Aotearoa New Zealand at the Venice Biennale.
Published by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Taharaki Skyside is a beautiful new publication designed by Neil Pardington and featuring large, high-quality images of Fiona Pardington’s work for the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Learn more about Fiona Pardington's Te taha o te rangi series; the layered depth of meaning behind these striking portraits of taxidermied museum manu, and how they inspired her Venice Biennale work, Taharaki Skyside.
The New Zealand Arts Council Toi Aotearoa and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū are proud to be working with Fiona Pardington to present Taharaki Skyside at the Aotearoa New Zealand national pavilion for the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
This link takes you to the NZ At Venice website.
Explore the city of Venice, the history of the Venice Biennale, and the participation of Aotearoa New Zealand on this global art stage.
The manu guide us. When we gaze into their eyes, we will see the horizons they gaze out upon and are situated within. – Fiona Pardington
In Taharaki Skyside, Fiona Pardington presents manu of Aotearoa New Zealand as central subjects rather than objects of observation. Learn more about the cultural, ecological, and scientific significance of these taonga species, and their place within both the natural world and te ao Māori. Explore how these birds embody stories of whakapapa, memory, connection, and environmental change.
Learn more about the native manu behind Fiona Pardington’s Taharaki Skyside. Each is unique, culturally and environmentally important, and many need our protection.
Watch three videos demonstrating the rich knowledge and deep relationships Māori have with manu (birds). Māori knowledge systems and Te Ao Māori (the Māori worldview) explain the nature of manu, their kāinga (home), their relationships with te taiao (natural world), and their importance within the living culture of Aotearoa New Zealand.
In Aotearoa New Zealand we’re lucky to have such unique native manu (birds). Using close-up photos of specimens in our collections, can you pick them?
Birds are an important part of New Zealand's nationhood. We are the only nation where the people are often colloquially known by a bird name – ‘Kiwi’.
Do you know the difference between a hihi and a huia? Or how many species of kiwi there are in NZ? Put your native bird knowledge to the test.
Birds are an important part of New Zealand's nationhood. We are the only nation where the people are colloquially known by a bird name – 'Kiwi'.
Find detailed information about all species of New Zealand birds, including all living, extinct, fossil, vagrant, and introduced bird species.
