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Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Discover online stories about identities, and traditions of Tangata o le Moana living in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and Aotearoa New Zealand. Features include stories about identity, community collaborations, traditional and revived knowledge, as well as connections to measina in Te Papa’s collections. Whether you whakapapa to the Pacific or want to learn more, explore the vibrant stories of Tangata o le moana Pacific people.
If you are looking for what is on in the museum, check out the Exhibitions page.
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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.
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.
Te Papa holds many measina or taonga from Te Moana-nui-a-Kiva. Explore each of the island nationalities below and discover historical and contemporary takes on societies and Pacific cultures.
There are around 14,800 residents across the Cook Islands, with a significant population living in Aotearoa New Zealand, maintaining strong ties home. Explore Te Papa’s Cook Island collections and stories from the community.
Fiji – officially the Republic of Fiji – comprises over 800 islands and the official language is English, though most speak Bauan or Hindustani. Find out more about Fiji through our collections, videos, blogs, and a Fijian language activity book.
The Republic of Kiribati is an island nation of over 32 atolls in Micronesia, in the central Pacific Ocean, with most of its population of over 119,000 living on the island of Tarawa. Find out about Kiribati in our collections.
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.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse countries in the world. With a population of around 10 million, it is home to more than 800 distinct languages and thousands of cultural groups, many of which maintain traditional practices, knowledge systems, and governance structures. Find out about Papua New Guinea life and explore some of our collections.
Read about our collections and connections to the island of Rotuma, part of the Rotuma Group, which includes several smaller islands in the South Pacific Ocean, around 650 kilometres north of Fiji.
Te Papa collections represent stories of Sāmoa and its people. They include the human settlement of the archipelago 3000 years ago, and the early 20th-century periods of German and New Zealand colonial administration, alongside contemporary views and stories from Sāmoan people living in Niu Sila.
The Solomon Islands, an archipelago nation situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, is made up of over 900 islands with rainforests, coastal environments, and coral reefs. The people of the Solomon Islands are primarily Melanesian and the official language is English, however, pidgin English is widely spoken.
Tokelau is in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawai‘i and Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more about Tokelau through videos, blogs, and an activity book.
Tonga, officially known as the Kingdom of Tonga, and also known as ‘The Friendly Islands’, is a group of islands in the South Pacific. It is currently the only Pacific country with a constitutional monarchy. Read stories and view our collections in connection to Tonga and the people of Tonga.
Tuvalu is made up of six atolls Nanumea, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Funafuti, Nukulaelae, and three reef islands, Nanumaga, Niutao, and Niulakita, making up a total land area of 26 square kilometres.
Explore some of the collections in Te Papa, and read about the lives and history of the people of Tuvalu.
Vanuatu is a South Pacific archipelago of over 80 islands, known for its extraordinary cultural diversity, with more than 100 spoken languages, with the official languages being English, French and Bislama, an English-based creole language. Find out about Vanuatu in our collections.
Working with Pacific communities brings the collections to life more than anything else. Whether it is through co-collecting, talanoa, or responding to historical collecting, Te Papa works with many Pacific communities.
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.
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.
The Dawn Raids were the Government’s promise to ‘get tough’ on law and order and immigration in the 1970s. Raids took place in the early hours of the morning or late at night when police would enter homes to convict and deport so-called ‘over-stayers’.
As part of our co-collecting initiative with the Tongan community, students have been considering what truly represents them and counters stereotypical representations. Curator Pacific Art, Nina Tonga highlights some of the students and their selected objects.
Wed 24 Nov 2021
Eight students from Taita College have created an advertising campaign promoting Te Papa’s Collections Online.
Press release He pānui pāpāho
Pacific curator Rachel Yates introduces a co-collecting project that took Te Papa to Tokelau’s three low-lying coral atolls in the South Pacific to document the effects of climate change.
Explore Pacific measina at Te Papa. Collections that map the Pacific, from tapa to tattooing tools, and ceremonial masks to colourful tīvaevae.
Find out about how tapa has been used, read about wānanga (workshops) contemporary makers, and see the tools used to make tapa and the beautiful taonga (treasures) in our collection.
We hold one of the largest collections of cnidarians in the country, with more than 1500 specimen lots, thirty-three of which are name-bearing types. View some of the ones from Niue in our collection.
Find taonga in the collections from historical collecting in the early days of the Colonial Museum, to contemporary art from makers and communities from the Pacific Islands.
Taonga (treasures) from the Cook Islands have been collected since the Te Papa’s predecessor, the Colonial Museum, opened in 1865. This Tuhinga article provides historical overviews of the Cook Islands collection, discusses its strengths and weaknesses, reviews some factors influencing its growth, and considers the possibilities for future collection development.
Our Mapping the Sāmoa Collections project is a collaboration between Te Papa and the Bishop Museum in Hawai‘i and aims to enhance museum catalogue records and develop digital maps to contextualise taonga (treasures). Research Assistant Alex Gordon reflects on the project.
Photographs of Sāmoan tatau in New Zealand and tools used in the art of tatau.
New Zealand photographer Thomas Andrew lived in Sāmoa from 1891 to 1939 – a tumultuous time when Britain, the United States, and Germany wrestled for control over the country – and captured political events, recorded daily life, and shot idyllic scenes for the tourist market.
Explore the history of Sāmoan tatau, watch interviews with people talking about what their tatau means to them, and discover objects and photographs within our collections.
Te Papa seeks to understand the local and global histories of the people and cultures in the Pacific, and to research and document these stories through our collection.
In 2022, Te Papa commissioned Matada Research Group Ltd to address the gap in research by engaging in an exploration of how actual and potential Pacific audiences view museums.
We seek to understand the local and global histories of Pacific peoples, and to document these stories through our collection.
Find out about some of our current Pacific Cultures research projects.
Books about history and cultures in the Pacific.
