General | MIrage News
22 November 2022
Arts alumnus Ken Gorbey tells Megan Fowlie, reporting for Auckland University’s Ingenio magazine, that he is treating his ninth decade as he would a museum exhibition: he’s determined to make it an engaging experience.
The…
Te Ao Maori | Art Newspaper (The)
19 July 2018
The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum of world cultures in Cologne, Germany has returned a tattooed Māori skull, which had been in its collection for 110 years, to a delegation representing the Museum of New Zealand Te…
New Zealand | Fox News
6 December 2012
“Whether you’re a fan making a pilgrimage to the city where the films were made, or you have no interest whatsoever in dwarfs and goblins, there’s plenty to do in Wellington. For free,”…
Te Ao Maori | Wall Street Journal (The)
26 October 2012
Te Papa is sending an exhibition of pounamu to China, where it expects a flurry of interest among museumgoers who haven’t seen how other cultures work with the precious stone. ‘Kura Pounamu: Treasured Stone…
Obituaries | Sky News
15 September 2012
New Zealand artist Don Binney, best known for his striking emblematic paintings of birds, has died in Auckland aged 72. Binney worked in oil, acrylic, charcoal, ink and carbon pencil. Many public collections feature…
Science/Tech | New Zealand Herald
18 May 2012
In a world-first, New Zealand scientists have accounted for every animal, plant, fungi or micro-organism – more than 56,200 living species and 14,700 fossil species – ever to live in New Zealand over the…
Visual Arts | Exhibition | New York Times (The)
16 December 2011
‘Maori — Their Treasures Have a Soul,’ an exhibition of Maori art and artifacts at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris on through 22 January, juxtaposes ancestral heirlooms with contemporary art, architecture, photography, film…
Nature | Xinhua News
15 November 2011
One of the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphins, the Hector’s Dolphin, has been seen in Wellington Harbour, more than two years after the last sighting. The person who spotted the dolphin said it…
Nature | New Scientist
27 October 2011
Te Papa scientist Vincent Zintzen and colleagues have been studying the hunting behaviour of the hagfish — or snot-eel — a blind sea creature partway between fish and worm, with a spinal cord but…
Fashion | Vogue
27 July 2011
New Zealand is known for its edgy fashion exports such as Kate Sylvester and Zambesi, but a retrospective exhibition on now at Te Papa reveals a lesser known secret: the land of the long…
Te Ao Maori | Washington Post
9 May 2011
A mummified and tattooed Maori head has been returned to New Zealand after spending 136 years in a Normandy museum. This is the first to be returned of a total of 16 in France….
Education | AFP
2 February 2011
“For decades, New Zealand has campaigned for museums to repatriate the mummified and heavily-tattooed heads of Maori warriors held in collections worldwide — now it must decide what to do with the gruesome but…
New Zealand | Malay Mail (The)
25 January 2011
When in Wellington “you don’t need energy to walk as you’ll be assisted by the wind,” discovers Malay Mail reporter Dominah Devadas. Devadas writes that asides from the wind, “Wellington is home to magnificent…
Te Ao Maori | BBC News
16 November 2009
The remains of 12 Maori – known as koiwi tangata – were recently returned to New Zealand having been part of the Welsh national collection at National Museum Cardiff. Research has shown that the…
Visual Arts | News Miner
19 July 2009
Former director of natural environment at Te Papa Carol Diebel will begin a new role overseeing the University of Alaska Museum of the North in October. In addition to her work leading Te Papa’s…
Obituaries | WA Today
15 July 2009
Chief executive of New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa, Dr Seddon Bennington, 61, died on July 15 tramping in the Tararua Ranges, a sight Dr Bennington admired from his office window, “frequently think of…
New Zealand | Brisbane Times (The)
25 March 2009
Rotorua hotpool Kerosene Creek, Rangitoto Island, Waitomo Caves, the Tongariro Crossing and Te Papa are the “five best freebies” on offer for tourists “with strained budgets” writes journalist Xavier La Canna who has lived…
Visual Arts | National Geographic
14 October 2008
Te Papa exhibition ‘Whales | Tohor?’ has opened at Washington DC’s National Geographic Museum. The exhibition features whale specimens including an 18-metre-long male sperm whale skeleton. The cultural significance of whales to the peoples…
Arts
27 September 2008
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performs at Te Papa.
Nature | BBC News
30 April 2008
Te Papa’s colossal squid, the largest ever caught, has created a worldwide media furore making headlines from South Africa and Germany, to Iran and Uruguay. Very little is known about colossal squid; only…
New Zealand | Bangkok Post
24 May 2007
The Bangkok Post takes a budget tour of NZ “that in some countries could easily pass for luxury”. Spending just fifty NZ dollars a day, the travel writer visits Wellington’s Botanic Gardens, Te Papa,…
Te Ao Maori | 24 Hour Museum
29 January 2007
A Scottish museum has returned its collection of tattooed Maori heads to NZ after housing them for more than 180 years. The nine toi moko were acquired by the University of Aberdeen’s Marischal Museum…
New Zealand | Guardian (The)
20 September 2006
The Guardian urges travellers to make time for NZ’s urban centres, as well as its world-famous mountains, fjords and forests: “There are some excellent attractions, delicious restaurants, cool harbourside bars and an interesting architectural history if you…
Te Ao Maori | Scottish TV
14 November 2005
The Glasgow City Council has officially returned the preserved heads of three unidentified Maori warriors to delegates from Te Papa Tongarewa. The moko mokai had variously been gifted to the Scottish city by collectors of antiquities…
Sport General | Telegraph (The)
25 October 2005
The Wellington Racing Club has asked the help of PM Helen Clark in borrowing the heart of legendary racehorse Phar Lap from Australia’s national museum in Canberra. “I’ve written to the prime minister to see if she…
Visual Arts | NZ Listener
15 July 2005
Art collective et al is New Zealand’s representative at the Venice Biennale with its installation The Fundamental Practice. Central to et al.’s work is an exploration of the human tendency to establish truths and…
Music | New Zealand Herald
13 August 2004
NZ composer John Psathas provided much of the music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Games, including the climactic moment when the Olympic flame was lit. Born in NZ to Greek…
Te Ao Maori | Independent (The)
24 June 2004
Three preserved heads (moko mokai) of Maori warriors have been returned to NZ by the Kelingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. The action comes after a worldwide search for Maori remains by Te Papa Tongarewa. Maori specialists…
Visual Arts | BBC News
3 May 2004
BBC notes the NZ connection in Shackleton’s legendary voyage, prior to the opening of Te Papa’s Antarctic Heroes – The Race to the South Pole exhibition. Kiwi Frank Worsley successfully navigated Shackleton’s boat -…
Taste | Star (The)
7 February 2004
The Star attributes Wellington’s creativity and can-do attitude to its extraordinary topography and world-ranking caffeine intake. “Wellington, the ‘windy city,’ definitely enjoys one of the most challenging locations on earth. ‘Here’s your brief,’ the…
New Zealand | Scotsman (The)
29 November 2003
Scotsman takes a bracing tour of Wellington, “New Zealand’s Windy City.’ Highlights include Te Papa (“spacious and informative, an emporium of knowledge”), Old St Paul’s (a cosy bijou of splendour”), a 4WD circuit of the coastal seal…
Visual Arts | Vogue
31 July 2003
Te Papa’s ‘Japonism’ exhibition reviewed in August’s Australian Vogue. A joint collaboration with the Kyoto Costume Institute, the show explores the influence of Japan on Western fashion from 1860 to the present. ‘Japonism’ -…
Film & TV | BBC News
6 July 2003
Te Papa’s record-breaking Lord of the Rings exhibition opens at London’s Science Museum in September – it’s only European showing before travelling to Singapore, Sydney, and Boston. The exhibition focuses on Weta Digital’s FX…
New Zealand | Australian (The)
1 March 2003
“Dull (never)” The Australian takes in the sights, sounds and tastes of Wellington in a glowing weekend feature. On a “perfect summer’s day” they breeze through cultural institutions (Pataka Museum and Te Papa), funky fashion (House of Hank,…
Visual Arts | ABC News
6 February 2003
Aotearoa-Pasifika artist Michael Tuffery talks to the ABC about recycling identity. Tuffery has recently completed an artist’s residency at Artspace Mackay in Queensland, Australia, where he ran a series of workshops for aspiring artists…
Film & TV | Los Angeles Times
7 December 2002
Te Papa’s Lord of the Rings exhibition (opening 19 December) is set to go global. The interactive collection of costumes, props, sets, and gadgetry mounts a two year international tour from February 2002, which includes stop-offs…
New Zealand | Independent (The)
28 April 2001
The Independent takes a tour through the capital’s cultural collage: fusion cooking, Te Papa, cafes, Mansfield, transexual MPs, colonial history and Pacific awakenings, and finds in the cosmopolitan brew that “It is hard to know which flavour…
Visual Arts | International Herald Tribune
30 March 2001
Thematic arrangement, fresh technology and festival atmosphere put Te Papa at the cutting edge of history.
Visual Arts | Prospect
11 February 2001
As conceptual architect of the “extraordinarily popular Museum of New Zealand Te Papa” Ken Gorbey has earned a reputation as a world leader in museum innovation – head hunted to be project director of…
Visual Arts | Telegraph (The)
15 December 2000
“In terms of the interconnections between commerce and culture, the most interesting example is the new national museum of New Zealand, called Te Papa … seen as a model of current museological thinking and…
Visual Arts | New York Times (The)
14 August 2000
Ken Gorbey of Te Papa, “New Zealand’s enormously successful national museum,” has been appointed artistic leader of of one of the new Berlin’s emblematic projects: the Daniel Liebeskind designed Jewish Museum. Gorbey’s challenge it…
New Zealand | Telegraph (The)
20 April 2000
Vanessa Collingridge explores the cosmic questions with a little help from Te Papa: “The nearest I’ve ever been to wormholes as entertainment was in a New Zealand museum …”