11 Contents He Kupu Mihi Greeting He Kupu Mihi | Greeting 3 Haere mai, Introducing Our Place 5 e te manuhiri tūārangi, ’s Natural World 19 haere mai ki tēnei … 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. ’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 . 10 11 ’s striking contemporary carvings in Te Hono ki are topped by demi-god Māui and his brothers capturing the sun.

The Marae Te Papa’s Marae, , 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 , 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 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 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 ’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. , 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. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, government leaders dreamed of an empire in the Pacific – and so brought Samoa, the , and Niue under New Zealand rule. Relationships from those times opened doors to the establishment of Pacific Island communities here. From the 1950s, immigration swelled in response to acute labour shortages. Michel Tuffery’s 1994 Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000), shown in the exhibition Tangata o le Members of these communities Moana, comments on the influences of imported commerce on Pacific people’s lives. have become notable achievers in all spheres of New Zealand life. Rugby legend Jonah Lomu, politician Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize winner , and hip-hop artist King Kapisi are just a few examples. Pacific influences and unique expressions of cultural fusion abound here, for example, in fashion, art, the ‘Pacific sound’ in music, and the practice of tattoo. Many New Zealanders now see themselves as Pacific people.

A photo for the Tangata o le Moana exhibition poster. Ōtara is a suburb in , the city with the largest population of Pacific Islanders in the world. DID YOU KNOW? New Zealand’s rule of Samoa (1914–62) included the violent suppression of the independence movement This magnificent cloak, given to the New there. Te Papa displays the fine mat given Zealand government by a Cook Islands chief in by the Samoan government to acknowledge 1872, typifies Pacific art with fabric, using both the New Zealand government’s 2002 Pacific fashion www.stylepasifika.co.nz indigenous and imported materials. apology for its actions. Pacific life www.teara.govt.nz/node/22446 52 The Arahura River in the west of the South Island is an important traditional source of .

The Te Puia (New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute) carving school is the oldest in the country. Here a Te Puia carver is preparing a pāua-shell eye.

Carving Early settlers from brought The most prized stone was pounamu, makers and owners. They are among carving techniques and patterns with a variety of jade also known as Te Papa’s greatest treasures. Today, them. However, over generations, greenstone, which is found in the the customary carving arts thrive, a distinctive style of Māori carving waterways of the western South handed down by masters at highly evolved, in part no doubt because of Island. Te Wai Pounamu (Waters regarded schools. New Zealand’s isolation. of Greenstone) is one of the South Island’s names. In terms of wood, the first people were spoilt for choice. But finding Over the centuries, and before the DID YOU KNOW? Metal tools, with their materials for durable cutting edges advent of metal technology, Māori sharper and more easily sharpened edges, was a challenge. Shell and bone were took the art of shaping stone, transformed carving practice and styles. Cuts could be made deeper and more plentiful, but there was no ready wood, and bone to extraordinary defined, and big projects, such as large substitute for the high-quality pearl heights, and distinctive regional buildings, became practicable. shell widely used in the tropics. styles evolved. Adornments, tools, Obsidian and a hard form of argillite, containers, weapons, architectural Māori carving www.tepuia.com quarried from a few sites and then features, sacred objects – all are Stone tools www.tepapa.govt.nz/stonetools traded, were soon in widespread use. invested with the spirit of their The hei tiki, a human-form pendant, is one of the best-known kinds of Māori adornment. This one is shown in the exhibition Kura Pounamu. 58 59 At the same time, politician and cultural leader Sir Āpirana Ngata was concerned that the knowledge of traditional arts was declining among Māori. From the 1920s, he championed a new generation of Māori artists, who focused their expression on the wharenui, the meeting house. In the mid-1930s, many Pākehā artists felt had to start anew. Their work was rooted in a land far from Europe. They acknowledged their New Zealand birth and heritage, but they also looked for new, revitalising ideas from abroad. Abstracting the landscape was one response. Another was interpreting Māori art from the perspective of The exhibition Toi Te Papa Art of the Nation, here featuring two artworks by Richard Killen, European modernism. showcases Te Papa’s art collection and tells the story of New Zealand’s major art traditions. Māori artists also looked beyond the traditional. From the 1950s, a new generation began expressing their cultural knowledge and experience Rutu, 1951, by Rita Angus. Seeing beyond through Western art forms. In more recent times, globalisation By the end of the 19th century, the has created worldwide opportunities old certainties of Western art for artists to exhibit their work. traditions were eroding under the It has also stimulated a powerful influence of new movements. In the interest in authentic expressions of early 20th century, many talented, indigenous identity, as evidenced by Western-trained artists left New the international market for the work Zealand to engage with the modern of contemporary Māori artists. art movements in Europe. Some returned to New Zealand, but many did not. They felt the local artistic environment was too conservative and unsupportive. However, they continued to exhibit here, which helped inform those at DID YOU KNOW? Educator Gordon Tovey home about new approaches. had a big influence on contemporary Māori art. The young ‘Tovey generation’ of school Rangi Kipa broke new ground with his Hei Tiki, advisers for Māori art and craft included The national art collection 2001, a customary pendant made from brilliantly , Cliff Whiting, and Fred www.tepapa.govt.nz/art coloured acrylic polymer. Graham – all renowned artists today. Mangaweka, 1973, by Robin White. 62 63