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Added on 28 Jul 2008. Last read 7 minutes ago.
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This feed currently contains the following newsitems (total count 1404):
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The first giant petrel fossils
- Te Papa's blog
- In 2017, Taranaki collector Alastair Johnson found the fossil of a giant petrel.
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Summer scholar turns the spotlight on native tree-perching orchids
- Te Papa's blog
- Because of their modest flowers and small size, New Zealand epiphytic orchids are rarely talked about and even more rarely studied. This is about to change as summer research intern Joe Dillon (Victoria University of Wellington) spends his summer at Te Papa and Ōtari Wilton’s Bush native botanic garden researching anRead more
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An introduction to speargrasses – plants with a prickly reputation
- Te Papa's blog
- Aotearoa New Zealand has a plethora of weird and wonderful plants. The ferociously spiky speargrasses are some of our most distinctive plants and an iconic feature of New Zealand’s high-country, especially when flowering. Te Papa Research Scientist Lara Shepherd and Botany Curator Leon Perrie recently embarked on a new projectRead more
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Mapping the Sāmoa collections: The First World War and New Zealand’s Empire
- Te Papa's blog
- In the Sāmoa Collections at Te Papa there are at least 60 measina that once belonged to soldiers who served in Sāmoa in World War One. They give us insight into the lives of Sāmoans and New Zealanders at the time, as well as the ways that the relationships between the two countries have changed over more than 100 years.Read more
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Adding cat pictures to the internet is my job
- Te Papa's blog
- The internet’s primary function as a repository for cat pictures is well established, but what about our pre-digital cat photos? Doesn’t the world deserve to see them as well? Imaging Technician Ish Doney describes the housing of the Digby/Woolf photographs collection and uses the opportunity to share some favourites.Read more
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Audrey Eagle (1925–2022), botanical illustrator and author
- Te Papa's blog
- We are saddened to hear of the recent death of New Zealand botanical illustrator and author, Audrey Eagle (1925–2022). Eagle was a talented artist, writer and botanical collector, whose careful observation, skill and determination over many decades brought forth several books, each containing beautiful and botanically accurate illustrations and descriptionsRead more
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Gary Blackman, photographer (1929–2022)
- Te Papa's blog
- Dunedin photographer Gary Blackman passed away on 22 November 2022 at age 92. Here curator of photography Athol McCredie reflects on some aspects of Blackman’s work. When Gary Blackman discovered photography as a form of personal expression in the early 1950s he was way ahead of his time. Too farRead more
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What can DNA reveal about harakeke and taonga Māori?
- Te Papa's blog
- Harakeke, or New Zealand flax, was of vital importance to Māori. It was the most significant source of fibre and had a multitude of uses from making ropes, clothing, mats, and baskets. Like many other museums, we hold a large number of taonga made from harakeke. For many of theRead more
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Museology, Myosotis, and metadata oh my! Sharing sustainably in Wikipedia
- Te Papa's blog
- We generate a lot of data at Te Papa.
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Mapping the Sāmoa Collections: How do you say ‘adze’ in Sāmoan?
- Te Papa's blog
- Using the correct Sāmoan words is important: it’s a way of giving mana to the original creators and users of the taonga in our collection.
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We need your help this summer! Your observations could help unravelling a 250-year-old mystery
- Te Papa's blog
- Massey University student Hayden Jones and Botany Curator Carlos Lehnebach are launching a citizen science project aiming at solving the identity crisis that surrounds one of our most common terrestrial orchids and your observation could provide the clue to solving this taxonomic imbroglio. Maikuku – the white sun orchid (ThelymitraRead more
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Japanese food connects family across generations – Setsuko’s legacy (part II)
- Te Papa's blog
- In an earlier blog, we learnt about Japanese migrant Setsuko Donnelly (b.
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Connecting with the collections: an intern’s reflections
- Te Papa's blog
- Rona Chapman, Art History and Public Policy student at Victoria University, recently spent time as an intern with our Knowledge and Information and Art teams.
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Mapping the Sāmoa Collections Project: Collaborations and connections
- Te Papa's blog
- 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; enhancing their visibility and improving associated biographies, which then allows communities to utilise and share these resources, as well as support museum collections and knowledge.
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Kiwi carrot (in a box): New Zealand’s native carrot on display
- Te Papa's blog
- Why is a specimen of New Zealand’s indigenous carrot on display at Te Papa for the next few months? Curator of Botany Leon Perrie explains. Among the most significant plant specimens in our care are collections made in 1769-1770 from Aotearoa New Zealand by botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander.Read more
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Documenting the 100-year-old origins of a Veronica cultivar
- Te Papa's blog
- During our recent Botany Blitz where we were cracking open boxes that have been patiently waiting to be processed and databased, we catalogued many specimens, learned new things about our collections, and discovered many fascinating stories along the way. Botany Curator Heidi Meudt talks about delving into a folder ofRead more
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Digitising film negatives: Making the negative positive in the The Digby / Woolf imaging process
- Te Papa's blog
- Film photography and negatives have had a bit of a resurgence lately but they were once the only way to get pictures made. A large part of our current project digitising the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf Collection is processing around 250,000 photographic negatives. But how does a photo negativeRead more
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Making Histories: iwi, hapū and whānau Covid-19 Checkpoints – research, reflections, and what next?
- Te Papa's blog
- It has been over two years since Aotearoa New Zealand went into lockdown in the hopes of limiting the spread of Covid-19.
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Thomas Kirk’s new species of Veronica from Newtown Park, Wellington in 1896
- Te Papa's blog
- Recently the Botany team at Te Papa dedicated a week to curating several boxes of plant specimens – we called it the Botany Blitz! Our aim was to crack open boxes that have been patiently waiting – months, years, or in some cases decades – to be processed and databased.
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Filing all the things! What happened at the recent Botany Blitz?
- Te Papa's blog
- When we think of Te Papa’s collections, we generally think of boxes neatly arranged systematically on shelves, everything in its place.
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From Turkey, to Japan, to Peru, the origins of Te Papa’s foreign insects
- Te Papa's blog
- The insect collection at Te Papa holds a hidden wealth of vibrant foreign specimens. Due to a reorganisation process, Technicians had a chance to rehouse and examine the foreign specimens. Natural History Technician Shaun Thompson talks about what he learned about our foreign insect collection.Read more
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Why Asian mental health matters in Aotearoa
- Te Papa's blog
- Many individuals from, and working alongside, Asian diasporas in Aotearoa New Zealand have consistently called for a greater focus on mental health issues. Our Asian Mental Health Project lead Mehwish Mughal offers a deeply personal insight into why the mental health concerns of Asian communities need to be addressed.Read more
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Unravelling threads: introducing our Asian Mental Health project
- Te Papa's blog
- As part of Mental Health Awareness Week (26 Sep – 2 Oct), researcher and activist Mehwish Mughal and Grace Gassin, Curator Asian New Zealand Histories, proudly launch our new Asian Mental Health project.Read more
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Then there were eight: Te Papa research reveals yet another species of prion
- Te Papa's blog
- New DNA research by Science Researcher Lara Shepherd and Vertebrate Curators Colin Miskelly and Alan Tennyson has revealed parallel evolution in the small seabirds called prions.
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Planting our forget-me-nots in Wikipedia
- Te Papa's blog
- Spring cleaning at Te Papa this year means getting out our longest feather duster, as we freshen up information about Aotearoa’s native forget-me-nots (Myosotis) on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.Read more
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A new bird for New Zealand – Matsudaira’s storm petrel
- Te Papa's blog
- There are a handful of bird species that are included on the New Zealand list based on a single specimen found storm-wrecked somewhere on New Zealand’s long coastline. Curator Vertebrates Colin Miskelly describes the discovery of the latest addition to this list.Read more
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Which petrel is this? A tale of polar explorers and a little seabird’s name
- Te Papa's blog
- This month, Curator Vertebrates Alan Tennyson and the Department of Conservation’s Johannes Fischer, published a scientific paper that clarified the identity of a common subantarctic seabird. Alan explains why this was necessary and what a surprising and incredible history this research revealed.Read more
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Tongan tattooing: Reconnecting to fonua across time and space through the art of tātatau
- Te Papa's blog
- Tufunga Tātatau Terje Koloamatangi is of Tongan and Norwegian Sami ancestry.
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Ainu scholar and artist Kanako Uzawa on the power of having a voice in museums
- Te Papa's blog
- In this blog, Ainu scholar, artist, and activist Kanako Uzawa discusses the representation of Japan’s colonial history in museums and public spaces for Te Papa's Cipiyak Project.Read more
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What Pride means to me
- Te Papa's blog
- Members of Te Papa’s whānau recently established an informal Takatāpui Rainbow Sharing group.
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