When I first saw the below post I serious thought the photo was of Lepidoptera eggs.
Image by George Vernon Hudson Public Domain via @wikicommons.bsky.social & #TePapa commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MA...
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A living tortoise next to a book called Torty and the Soldier and a model tortoise in a museum exhibit.
Never a dull moment at #TePapa! Today I met THE #tortoise #torty from our #galipoli exhibition.
Not planned, I just bumped into her!
This place is something else.
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Gifts to the nation: The National Art Collection at Te Papa.
The Colonial Museum was founded in Wellington in 1865.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2026/03/13/g... #globalmuseum #museums #art #TePapa
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Cassandra Bahr has been working in the Collected Archives at #TePapa, cataloguing and rehousing papers from people connected to Te Papa’s collecting areas. Here, she highlights the archives of scientific illustrator Bruce Irwin.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2026/02/20/a... #globalmuseum #plants #museums
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Bug of the Year 2026 and why you should vote for Apsona, the sapphire spider fly.
Bug of the Year was created to celebrate the spectacular and often overlooked invertebrates of New Zealand.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2026/01/27/b... #globalmuseum #insects #TePapa #museums
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Te Papa has some of NZ’s greatest artworks, so why won’t our national museum let us see them?
The names below are those of New... Zealand artists whose paintings are listed on the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa’s website but which are not on display.
archive.ph/EnuKm #globalmuseum #TePapa
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Caring for the Te Papa palaeontology collection
How the fossils are cared for, so they are available for research and display, both now and long into the future.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2026/01/16/p... #globalmuseum #museums #TePapa #collections #fossils
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Painted in the 1930s, this portrait is less interested in likeness than in the architecture of looking. After travels in Europe, artist Helen Stewart wrote, “Art in Europe to-day is vital,” and she trained at André Lhote’s Paris academy, where students learned to build images through clear structure and proportion. Here, the sitter’s body and the room interlock as rectangles and vertical bands. A striped skirt becomes almost the same kind of plane as the background, collapsing depth into design. The bracing patterning and daring color contrasts nod to Henri Matisse, yet Stewart’s handling feels distinctly her quirky, poised, and modern. A woman sits, shoulders squared, looking slightly past us. Her skin is light-to-medium coffee brown with warm undertones. Dark eyes and arched brows give her face a calm, appraising intensity. She wears a vivid red dress with a deep V neckline and pink & red bow. Rounded sleeves carry bold white-and-red stripes with a blush-pink panel. Her short black hair is wavy and side-parted in a classic 1930s style. Her lips are painted raspberry red. One forearm rests across her lap with stacked bracelets circling her wrist. Behind her, the room is flattened into blocks of a speckled cream wall with a small green circle, and a broad red plane like a door. Matte brushwork simplifies fabric, skin, and furniture into confident planes of color. “Portrait of a Woman in Red” matches the “modern” women Stewart exhibited at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in 1934. Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand) notes that this woman’s identity is unknown, which heightens the work’s tension as she reads as a modern woman with lipstick, cropped hair, direct gaze, yet is presented without a name. That anonymity could suggest both erasure and freedom as she becomes an emblem of interwar self-fashioning while also meeting us as an equal.
“Portrait of a Woman in Red” by Helen Stewart (New Zealand) - Oil on canvas / 1930s - Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #HelenStewart #MuseumofNewZealand #TePapa #art #artText #NewZealandArt #NewZealandArtist #WomenPaintingWomen
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Q&A: Dr Thom Linley, Curator of Fishes at Te Papa.
Dr Thom Linley is the Curator of Fishes at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
www.aa.co.nz/membership/a... #globalmuseum #museums #TePapa #fish #Ichthyology
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A really nice video by @schmidtocean.bsky.social about our #Antarctic expedition.
It captures some of the emotion of being there and the sense of urgency.
I would not have been able to join if not for the support of @pure-ocean.bsky.social
and #TePapa
youtu.be/C4e3GZkGwxk?...
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Tony Whitaker, a renowned herpetologist donated his collection of specimens to Te Papa.
Anthony Whitaker took thousands of photos of lizards, and many are excellent photos in their own right as well as useful scientifically
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2025/10/14/k... #globalmuseum #TePapa #lizards #museums
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A cheeky weka: Documenting te taiao through art.
University students recently had the unique opportunity to visit Te Papa for a session led by Curator Art Lizzie Bisley, focused on the rich history of animal illustration.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2025/08/21/a... #globalmuseum #museums #drawing #TePapa
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Herbarium specimens offer a rare glimpse into the historical hunt for Fiordland kākāpō.
Te Papa's Botany curator Leon Perrie and researcher Lara Shepherd recently visited the Allan Herbarium in Lincoln, NZ.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2025/08/08/h... #globalmuseum #museums #birds #Kakapo #TePapa
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Out with the old, in with the green: Te Papa’s new Host uniforms.
Te Papa's beloved Hosts and Tour Guides are stepping into brand new uniforms – the latest evolution of what we’ve called our “Fun Shirts"
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2025/07/30/o... #museums #globalmuseum #museumjobs #jobs #TePapa
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A mannequin wearing a long white dress with short puff sleeves and high waistline. There is a white net overdress trimmed with pale blue appliquéd satin at the bodice, sleeves and lower third of the skirt
It is easy to see the allure of a net overdress in this #1820s gown. The solid silk silhouette beneath gives way to the blur of sheer net embellished with blue satin trim that floats across the surface. The ethereality must have been compounded by low flickering light #TePapa #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡
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Biker Blur in the Empty Market
#bike #rider #helmet #streetphotography #motionblur #wellington #tepapa
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![Commissioned portraits gave Māori control over how they were represented. New Zealand artist Gottfried Lindauer painted many portraits for Māori clients from the mid 1870s. For his sitters, portraiture was another way of representing themselves, in addition to whakairo [carving] and other art forms.
This portrait was probably painted for this unidentified young woman or her whānau [family]. Lindauer’s portraits of Māori painted for Pākehā usually feature customary adornment and clothing. But this elegant young lady wears beautifully tailored European clothing – her own choice of personal expression.
She has dark brown eyes, dark hair styled in ringlets that fall on her shoulders. Her skin tone is rich and warm, and her expression is serious, almost melancholic, but not unhappy. She’s gazing slightly off to her left, avoiding direct eye contact with us. This slightly averted gaze creates a sense of introspection and quiet dignity.
The woman is dressed in a sophisticated maroon dress with a white collared blouse underneath. The dress features black panels down front, creating a contrasting effect with the rich maroon. The buttons on the dress are small, dark, and evenly spaced. Around her neck, she wears a reddish-brown patterned cravat, tied in a bow with fringed ends. A prominent gold and dark stone (possibly garnet or onyx) pendant hangs from its center. She also wears teardrop-shaped earrings with a green stone, possibly jade or malachite.
The background is a muted, dark olive-green tone, providing a neutral backdrop. The lighting is soft and subtle, highlighting the woman's features and the details of her clothing and jewelry creating a three dimensional effect. The overall vibe is one of quiet intensity and refined elegance, conveying a sense of respect and appreciation for the her beauty and poise. Lindauer’s details like the shine on her hair and the texture of the fabrics, suggest the portrait is meant to be not only a likeness, but also a celebration.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dtli5s7b2qnvvqcgh74ruri5/bafkreiem2bkcrfzo7m7rhdb24looic7gkl5o2fb3izklcrabvz5oginriu)
Commissioned portraits gave Māori control over how they were represented. New Zealand artist Gottfried Lindauer painted many portraits for Māori clients from the mid 1870s. For his sitters, portraiture was another way of representing themselves, in addition to whakairo [carving] and other art forms. This portrait was probably painted for this unidentified young woman or her whānau [family]. Lindauer’s portraits of Māori painted for Pākehā usually feature customary adornment and clothing. But this elegant young lady wears beautifully tailored European clothing – her own choice of personal expression. She has dark brown eyes, dark hair styled in ringlets that fall on her shoulders. Her skin tone is rich and warm, and her expression is serious, almost melancholic, but not unhappy. She’s gazing slightly off to her left, avoiding direct eye contact with us. This slightly averted gaze creates a sense of introspection and quiet dignity. The woman is dressed in a sophisticated maroon dress with a white collared blouse underneath. The dress features black panels down front, creating a contrasting effect with the rich maroon. The buttons on the dress are small, dark, and evenly spaced. Around her neck, she wears a reddish-brown patterned cravat, tied in a bow with fringed ends. A prominent gold and dark stone (possibly garnet or onyx) pendant hangs from its center. She also wears teardrop-shaped earrings with a green stone, possibly jade or malachite. The background is a muted, dark olive-green tone, providing a neutral backdrop. The lighting is soft and subtle, highlighting the woman's features and the details of her clothing and jewelry creating a three dimensional effect. The overall vibe is one of quiet intensity and refined elegance, conveying a sense of respect and appreciation for the her beauty and poise. Lindauer’s details like the shine on her hair and the texture of the fabrics, suggest the portrait is meant to be not only a likeness, but also a celebration.
“Maori Girl” by Gottfried Lindauer (New Zealander) - Oil on canvas / c. 1874 - Te Papa (Wellington, New Zealand) #WomenInArt #MuseumofNewZealand #TePapaTongarewa #TePapa #art #ArtText #womensart #portraitofalady #GottfriedLindauer #Lindauer #Māori #Maori #NewZealandArt #NewZealandArtist #oilpainting
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In 1938, Rita Angus quit her job as an illustrator for Ballantynes department store to focus on painting. Marjorie Marshall was one of a number of close women friends who helped Angus through the late 1930s, when she often lacked a steady income or fixed address. Angus went to stay with fellow artist Marshall and her husband William at their house in Wanaka, and the two women spent days sketching the Central Otago landscape. Angus produced a large body of watercolors on the trip, several of which were exhibited in a show by the Christchurch collective “The Group,” in August of that year. This stylized painting combines two main strands of Angus’ practice – portraiture and landscape – in a work of particular boldness and intensity. Through bright slabs of color and light, she evokes both the drama of the Central Otago Alps and the affection and warmth of her friendship with Marshall. Central Otago was a revelation to Angus – a powerful landscape fit for the ambition of her paintings. She returned there many more times to paint. Marshall is depicted with a light tan scarf draped over her head. Her expression is neutral/serene. Her attire suggests everyday rural wear: a dark green jacket and an orange-red blouse. Her physical and facial features are emphasized using bold brushstrokes and a clear tonal quality. Angus uses distinct, broad brushstrokes and vibrant bold colors. Emphasis is on creating shape and volume through color. As was typical of her practice, Angus made small changes to the portrait of Marjorie Marshall in 1943. Angus rarely sold her paintings and would often return to them over the course of many years, making small adjustments to the color or composition. This painting was originally intended to be accompanied by a self-portrait of Angus in the same landscape. That self-portrait was never finished, yet is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia as “Self-portrait (Wanaka).”
“Marjorie Marshall” by Rita Angus (New Zealander) - Oil on canvas adhered to plywood / 1938-1939 & 1943 - Te Papa (Wellington, New Zealand) #WomenInArt #FemaleArtist #WomensArt #PortraitofaWoman #ArtText #WomanArtist #TePapa #MuseumofNewZealand #art #RitaAngus #MarjorieMarshall #CentralOtagoAlps
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Oarfish survival guide: So, you have found a mythical sea serpent – how to prepare for your impending doom.
A sign that a major earthquake was imminent? Are we in for a bumper herring harvest… both?!
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2025/07/01/o... #globalmuseum #TePapa #museums #fish #Oarfish
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Three generations of Te Ātiawa enjoying kaumatua Kapa Haka #AkeAkeAke #raukura #TeMatehou #Pōneke #TePapa #kapahaka
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Your life is important – your archive is important.
It’s not easy for GLAMs (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) to be wholly inclusive, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2025/06/19/y... #TePapa #museums
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A big museum wall at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand is lit up at night for Puanga celebration. This is the new year star and celebration for some iwi (Māori tribes). The wall light art shows a blue text Puanga on a red background, and a beautiful lady in blue, a stylised representation of Puanga, the star in the Orion constellation, known as Rigel by Europeans.
A big museum wall at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand is lit up at night for Puanga celebration. This is the new year star and celebration for some iwi (Māori tribes). The wall light art shows a beautiful lady in blue, a stylised representation of Puanga, the star in the Orion constellation, known as Rigel by Europeans. She has her arms open and looks directly at the viewer.
A big museum wall at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand is lit up at night for Puanga celebration. This is the new year star and celebration for some iwi (Māori tribes). The wall light art shows a blue text Puanga on a red background, and a beautiful lady in blue, a stylised representation of Puanga, the star in the Orion constellation, known as Rigel by Europeans.
A big museum wall at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand is lit up at night for Puanga celebration. This is the new year star and celebration for some iwi (Māori tribes). The wall light art shows a red background, and a beautiful lady in blue, a stylised representation of Puanga, the star in the Orion constellation, known as Rigel by Europeans. Her dark hair spreads wide as a cloak reaching to the edges of the wide wall.
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Just imagine what creatures still lurk undiscovered in the depths! #deepsea #oceanography #tepapa www.abc.net.au/news/science...
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Research report now available on JSTOR by a Pew Research Center, titled 'Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World.' Authored by Richard Wike, Moira Fagan, Christine Huang, Laura Clancy, and Jordan Lippert. Featuring an illustration of five individuals standing together in a black and white drawing by William Strang, titled: The Cause of the Poor.
Now on #JSTOR: Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World. This @pewresearch.org report explores views on inequality and children’s financial futures across 36 countries. Read this #OpenAccess report on JSTOR: bit.ly/4jmVvLY
🖼️ : William Strang. 1890. The Cause of the Poor. #tepapa
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I was on @rnz.co.nz.web.brid.gy #NinetoNoon this morning talking about joining the @schmidtocean.bsky.social expedition to explore a newly exposed area of #Antarctic #deepsea
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
#TePapa @pure-ocean.bsky.social
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#tepapa #museumofnewzealand #wellington #100percentpurenewzealand #visitwellington #visitnewzealand #museumlover
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Home after a most enjoyable couple of days in #Wellington. Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery at #TePapa was fab.
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We can now talk about what we found on the @schmidtocean.bsky.social #AntarcticClimateConnections expedition!
A huge section of #iceshelf broke off and politely got out of the way, allowing us to observe pristine under-ice habitat.
#TePapa
@pure-ocean.bsky.social
phys.org/news/2025-03...
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The #blobfish is #NZFishoftheyear! Our maligned ambassador of the #deepsea and precious baby finally gets recognition. 2nd place went to another #deepocean fish, the #OrangeRoughy.
Check out the #TePapa #blog for the origin of that iconic image.
blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/09/09/t...
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