11 Contents He Kupu Mihi Greeting He Kupu Mihi | Greeting 3 Haere mai, Introducing Our Place 5 e te manuhiri tūārangi, New Zealand’s Natural World 19 haere mai ki tēnei marae … The Settling of New Zealand 29 Welcome, visitors, The Emergence of a Nation 41 to this marae, Art and Taonga Māori 55 this meeting place … Te Papa’s Connections 65 He Poroporoaki | A Word of Farewell 72 These are words you might hear as many official hosts are here to guide you stand at the gateway of Te Papa’s you on tours or answer your questions Marae at the beginning of a pōwhiri, wherever in the Museum you may be. a welcoming ceremony. They are part Te Papa is the guardian of New of a karanga, a call that invites you Zealand’s national collections – from onto the host community’s ground. great artworks to specimens of the So begins an encounter between tiniest plants and animals. a home people and their visitors. As your host, we welcome you here. A pōwhiri establishes or renews We invite you to share an experience connections and prepares the way for of Te Papa’s treasures. And we seek to hosts and guests to come together. connect their stories with your own. This process reflects Te Papa’s Te Papa: Your Essential Guide will relationship with you, our guest. It serve as a pleasurable reminder of Te reflects our commitment to look after Papa – a souvenir of your visit and a you on our home ground. Te Papa’s memento of New Zealand. 3 Introducing Our Place Two people hongi (press noses) – a common form of greeting in which they share ‘the breath of life’. 5 Te Papa’s setting exposes the building to Built to endure intense sunlight, frequent gales, driving rain, and salt-laden air from the harbour. The main A massive grey wall faces west. It structure will endure at least 150 years in these Te Papa sits prominently on conditions. Wellington’s waterfront. Its structure divides the building and emerges makes an intentional and bold towards the south like a buttress. statement about Te Papa’s place in This echoes the fault line that runs New Zealand and New Zealand’s place parallel through the city and along in Te Papa. the western side of the harbour – a reminder of Earth’s powerful forces. The building rises like a steep The wall’s shape also suggests a canoe island from its base. The north face hauled up on land, stern to the city overlooks the harbour. From its bluff- and prow to the sea. This refers to the like walls, you gain an embracing view arrival of voyagers, both ancient and of sea, hills, and sky, which meet in modern. The Museum is both a landing the distance. place and a launch pad for ideas and experience. DID YOU KNOW? Te Papa sits on land that was swamp until raised by a massive earthquake in 1855. The Museum’s site had to be compacted before construction began in 1993. To do this, 30-tonne weights were dropped on the ground 50,000 times to compact the earth. Te Papa’s building www.tepapa.govt.nz/building A view towards the meeting place of earth, sea, Part of Te Papa’s south face, greeting the city and sky through The Marae’s waharoa (gateway), with vibrantly coloured windows, is a built-in a tribute to all New Zealand’s voyagers. artwork by Milan Mrkusich. 10 11 Cliff Whiting’s striking contemporary carvings in Te Hono ki Hawaiki are topped by demi-god Māui and his brothers capturing the sun. The Marae Te Papa’s Marae, Rongomaraeroa, is Visitors of all cultures can feel at lived in the darkness of their parents’ a fully functioning communal centre, home in this contemporary marae. embrace. run according to Māori protocol. The Marae also represents Te Ao Some of the children became restless. It is the heart of Museum life – a Mārama. In Māori tradition, this is the They tried to separate their mother place for welcomes, celebrations, world of light, where living things dwell. from their father, but they could not. and ceremonies. It is also a living Eventually, one of the sons, Tāne, exhibition, showcasing contemporary Papatūānuku, the Earth mother, placed his head against Papatūānuku Māori art and design. and Ranginui, the sky father, are and his feet against Ranginui and the original parents who formed the The Marae comprises an outside forced them apart. In so doing he world. They lived in the light, but they space, the marae ātea, or place of opened the world of light and created clung together, and their children encounter, and the wharenui, the a space for all living things. meeting house. The name of the wharenui is Te Hono ki Hawaiki, which DID YOU KNOW? Rongomaraeroa is one of The Marae floor symbolises Papatūānuku, with about 1300 marae that form a network for Ranginui represented in Robert Jahnke’s massive speaks of the connection with Hawaiki Māori throughout the country. Most marae glass doors. The raising of these doors evokes (the place of spiritual origin for Māori). belong to groups linked by descent and are Tāne separating his parents. located on tribal land. Visitors to The Marae are captivated by the The Marae www.tepapa.govt.nz/marae stunning artworks. Māori networking www.teara.govt.nz/node/92310 14 15 A slice of Zealandia, showing how the islands The restless Earth of New Zealand connect to the underwater continental landmass. Zealandia, New Zealand’s continental Along much of the South Island the mass, includes all the islands above two plates grind past each other at the waves and a far larger submerged around 40 millimetres a year – as fast expanse. In fact, only 7 percent as fingernails grow. In Earth terms, of Zealandia is above the sea, and that’s full sprint. As the plates collide, much of this was formed – and is still the land is pushed up, creating the forming – as a result of the dynamic Southern Alps. interaction between two tectonic All this tectonic activity means plates. that in New Zealand thousands of The North Island sits on the Australian earthquakes are recorded every plate. The Pacific plate to the east is year. Te Papa, however, has taken slowly forcing its way underneath the precautions. The Museum’s 64,000- Australian plate, producing a volcanic tonne structure is connected to its zone. Lake Taupō, for example, is the foundations by 135 ‘base isolators’. crater of a massive volcano – whose These devices, made of rubber and last major eruption, some 1800 years lead, absorb much of the ground’s ago, caused weather abnormalities shaking during an earthquake. recorded in Rome and China. A simulated aftershock in the Earthquake House in the popular exhibition Awesome Forces consistently rates as a highlight for visitors. DID YOU KNOW? Seismographs record approximately 14,000 earthquakes in and around New Zealand each year. About 150 of these tremors are near enough or strong enough for people to feel them. Earthquakes www.gns.cri.nz/earthquakes Volcano watch www.geonet.org.nz/volcano 20 21 This badge encapsulates the anti-nuclear sentiment that became a uniting and defining principle for most Kiwis through the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. Two members of St John's College run onto Rugby Park, Hamilton, while two supporters of Springbok Rugby Tour try to stop them (detail) 1981, by Peter Black. A fair go Before the Treaty of Waitangi was And the 1930s Labour government diplomatic ructions with the US, but signed, New Zealanders were by pioneered a raft of social reforms, the policy was popular locally. And definition Māori. After the Treaty, including the provision of free when Greenpeace’s vessel Rainbow a new notion of New Zealand, and healthcare for all. Warrior, which was about to protest later ‘Kiwi’, identity came into being. French nuclear testing at M0ruroa, In recent decades, the pursuit of a fair was blown up by French agents, New Integral to the burgeoning New go has seen Māori, women, and gay Zealanders were outraged. Zealand identity was, and remains, people all stand up for their rights. a commitment to social justice. Widespread protests staged against The ‘fair go’ principle has had a Kiwis live in a broadly egalitarian the Vietnam War and apartheid sport dynamic effect on the New Zealand society and believe that everyone have reflected Kiwis’ willingness to consciousness, something that Te deserves a ‘fair go’. oppose injustice or back a principle. Papa explores in its 20th-century This stamp, issued in 2008, commemorates history exhibition, Slice of Heaven. In 1893, New Zealand became the first Kate Sheppard who led the fight for women’s In 1985, Kiwis made a bold assertion country in the world to give women suffrage in 1893. Her final petition contained of independence. Under the almost 32,000 signatures, then the largest ever DID YOU KNOW? Fighting for causes full voting rights. presented to parliament. leadership of Labour Prime Minister overseas has had major impacts at home. David Lange, visits from nuclear ships Some 18,500 New Zealanders died during World War I, another 50,000 were wounded Passion for rugby www.tepapa.govt.nz/talesfromtepapa-springboktour were banned, and New Zealand was – a total of 7 percent of the country’s Protests and demonstrations www.teara.govt.nz/node/87455 declared ‘nuclear free’. This caused population at the time. 46 47 Pacific place, Pacific people Geographically, New Zealand is a Pacific country, whose human history is shared with the peoples of that ocean.