Human Rights Commission

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand’s national museum, situated on Wellington’s waterfront. Its key tasks are to preserve and present the taonga (treasures) of New Zealand’s peoples and to interpret the country’s heritage for national and international audiences.

Its mission is to be a forum for the nation to present, explore and preserve the heritage of its cultures and knowledge of the natural environment in order to better understand and treasure the past, enrich the present and meet the challenges of the future. Ka tu Te Papa Tongarewa hei wananga mo te motu, ki te whakaara, ki te hopara, ki te whakapumau i nga tikanga maha, me nga mohiotanga mo te ao tuturu, kia whai mana ai enei mohiotanga, mai nehera, kia mau pakari ai mo inaianei, whai ki te wa kei mua.

Te Papa has a wide range of permanent and changing exhibitions, as well as educational programmes, films, speakers and forums on issues of cultural diversity. Its meeting facilities and theatre are widely used for conferences, public forums and cultural performances. Its website carries a wide range of background information as well as details of current exhibitions and activities.

Visit the website of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Projects 2012

Exhibitions Programme

Community Gallery: The Mixing Room: stories from young refugees in New Zealand

Bursting with creativity, over 70 young refugees to New Zealand tell their extraordinary stories – through art, film, poetry, performance and new digital media.

They invite you to see the immense changes they have endured, and the hopeful new lives they are building on these shores.

Te Papa has facilitated a series of workshops around the country to enable some of these young people to record – through words, film, photography, and visual art – the joys and difficulties of their experience as they settle into a new way of life in New Zealand.

Signs of a Nation

The Treaty of Waitangi is living social document – debated, overlooked, celebrated. Is it a vision of peaceful co-existence or the cause of disharmony? An irrelevancy or the platform on which all New Zealanders can build a future? Signs of a Nation | Nga Tohu Kotahitanga is a contemporary commentary on the Treaty of Waitangi and its centrality to the wider New Zealand community.

The exhibition is also responsive to contemporary events a special section, ‘Poringi’, shows the Treaty partnership in action through the Treaty claims process. Panels on both sides of the space discuss grievances over breaches of the Treaty and show the process by which claims against the Crown are made and how they are settled.

The Treaty is fundamental to our vision of this nation. This exhibition invites you to engage with New Zealand’s founding document.

Passports

Passports explores and celebrates the remarkable stories of the people who migrated to New Zealand. Focusing on all nationalities other than Maori, this exhibition presents the objects and ideas the migrants brought with them and examines how they adjusted to the new land.

The New Zealand story is about journeys and arrivals. A thousand years of people leaving home to come here. In Passports you can meet the immigrants that have come here over the last two hundred years. Who were they? What did they bring? What did they leave behind? How would you fare in their position?

Tangata o le Moana

Tangata o le Moana, the story of Pacific people, is a major, long-term exhibition for Te Papa which opened in 2007. The exhibition spans history and into the present day and ventures into all areas of Pacific culture. This is achieved through exhibits ranging from ancient vaka (canoes) to contemporary jewellery to ‘Pacific Beats’, an interactive tool that enables visitors to remix the sounds of Pacific musicians such as Fat Freddy’s Drop.

The exhibition aims to raise questions of cultural identity as well as promote New Zealand as a Pacific place in location and history.

Iwi Gallery: Tai timu, tai pari, Tainui: Journey of a people

Tai timu, tai pari, Tainui: Journey of a people tells the epic story of Tainui – New Zealand’s largest tribal grouping. The Tainui people invite you to journey with them, from their origins in East Polynesia to their lives in present-day Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond.

Events Programme

Waitangi Day Treaty Debates Series: Pathways to Partnership

Waitangi Day: In partnership with the NZ Centre for Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington, Te Papa annually presents The Treaty Debate Series. The series provides an opportunity to debate highly relevant topics relating to the Treaty of Waitangi as NZ’s founding document, to examine the Treaty’s impact on society today, and to consider what its implications are for the future.

This year’s debate will take place on:

• 26 January and will feature High Court Justice Joe Williams and public law specialist Mai Chen. 
• 2 February A long conversation: The Constitutional Review. Should New Zealand have a written constitution? And what role should the Treaty play? The forthcoming constitutional review is the subject of this second Treaty Debate in Te Papa’s annual series.

The Treaty of Waitangi Floortalks

Nau mai! Haere mai!  Learn about New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, by joining a half-hour floortalk through our Treaty-focused exhibitions. Floortalks are limited to 20 people. Names will be taken 15 minutes before each begins.

Waitangi Day 6 February1pm, 2pm, 3pm, and 4pm: Signs of a Nation, Level 4. Free entry.

New Treaty Militia

Award-winning performance artist Cat Ruka   (Ngapuhi,Waitara) presents a provocative new work investigating the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand identity. 6 February.

Patterns of the Past: Tattoo Revival in the Cook Islands – Book Launch

Meet authors Therese Mangos and John Utanga, along with photographer Kirsty Griffin. Enjoy a Cook Islands performance and win a copy of this important book. Book launch in association with the Cook Islands High Commission. 11 February

Chinese New Year

Celebration for the Year of the Dragon – Dance performances and concert by Xiamen Performing Arts ( Wellington’s Sister City). 14 February

The Two Counter-Tenors

Chinese singing sensation Xiao Ma presents a dazzling programme of music for counter-tenor voices. Featuring emerging talent Stephen Diaz and pianist Gao Ping.Supported by Chinese Embassy. Celebrating 40 years of NZ-Chinese diplomatic relations. 18 February

Taualuga: The Last Dance

Samoan-born artist and curator Shigeyuki Kihara presents a solo dance piece retelling the cultural legacy of colonialism in Sāmoa from an indigenous perspective. 23 February

Masi

Conch Shell Productions presents their 2nd work, after the acclaimed VULA, as a commission for the NZ International Festival of the Arts ( Fiji & UK). 2-6 March.

Fulbright Reflections

The first of 4 talks for the year. In this we bring together 3 artists form different ethnic background’s and genres to talk about their passion. Each of the ‘talks’ will have a different theme. The Fulbright Alumni Talks is an opportunity to hear New Zealand Fulbright alumni from the arts, sciences, and culture sectors share their ideas about New Zealand’s place in today’s global world. ( Talks on 4 Mar, 27May, 26 Aug & 4 Nov)

Troilus and Cressida

The Māori Troilus and Cressida will be p part of the NZ International Arts Festival on 9-10 March.

Brides from other cultures

Brides from other cultures fashion show to be held on  12 April.

Anzac Day events

Tongan Brass Band(tbc) NZ Army Band(tbc)

NZ Sign Language Week

Exhibition tours for the deaf ( tbc). 30 Apr – 6 May.

Japanese cultural event

A Japanese cultural event aligned with NZ – Sister City Conference 2012 (3 days) held at Te Papa & 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and New Zealand.  Details tbc. 9-11 May.

Samoan Language Week

The 2012 Samoan Language Week will be held from 27 May – 2 June.  Activities tbc.

Kahu Ora: Living Cloaks

Events for the duration of the exhibition will include weaver’s village, floortalks by specialists, artist’s responses, traditional music, contemporary music presentations by costume designers, story telling in te reo, exhibition tour for the deaf. (tbc) 7 June – 21 October

Matariki: For Te Papa

Matariki is an annual event that celebrates the indigenous calendar of Aotearoa, and it attracts performers and visitors from all around New Zealand. The calendar is based on traditional knowledge of the seasonal cycle, and looks at its significance to Maori. Te Papa, in conjunction with its partners Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori and Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga, celebrated Matariki, the traditional Maori New Year celebrated in June. The new year was heralded over the month of June with free shows, lectures, and activities.

Matariki events in 2012 will be from 7 – 24 June.

Education Programme

Te Papa is a great place for learning. Come and experience the stories of NZ in five floors of fascinating exhibitions and objects. We welcome you to visit Te Papa either on a self-guided basis or with the support of our education team.

Our programmes, led by experienced educators:

• are activity-based and cover a wide range of curriculum areas
• are designed for all stages of learning, from preschool to secondary
• are specifically developed to fit with achievement objectives
• incorporate bicultural learning objectives and can usually be offered in English and te reo Maori are supported by pre-visit and post-visit activities
• can be adapted to meet your specific needs.

For full details on all events and exhibitions, please visit Te Papa’s website.