Less than 2mm when they hatch, sunfish grow to become the largest bony fish in the world. Little is known about them in their early stages, but one Auckland-based scientist has helped make a major genetic breakthrough in sunfish research for the first time. As far as fish go, sunfish are pretty funny-looking creatures. They … Read more
The doors may be closed, but the Auckland Museum is open. Elly Strang pays a visit to Auckland Museum At Home. As New Zealand moves through its fourth week of lockdown, there’s no doubt many across the nation will be feeling an itch to explore a place beyond the four walls of their home. After … Read more
A perfectly preserved set of Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit and Veges went on sale this week. Hayden Donnell delivers an exclusive update on their fate. Everyone remembers their first encounter with Junk & Disorderly’s set of Big Fresh Animatronic Fruit & Veges. There’s something overpowering about the experience. The Butter looms overhead, deranged joy etched … Read more
A team of University of Otago researchers and weavers will unlock the secrets of one of te ao Māori’s most precious taonga for the first time in more than 200 years. The late Hec Busby was in his 50s when the Hawai’ian ocean voyaging waka Hokule’a landed at Waitangi in 1985. By that point, most … Read more
In the fourth part of the new podcast series Venus Envy, Damaris Coulter, Annah Pickering, and Nunu Davey, discuss fighting for your community when no one else will. For three women who have been at the front lines of feminism for a decades, the #MeToo movement has little relevance, and Kate Sheppard’s meaning is limited … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of the objects that surround us in everyday life. In the first of the series, Madeleine Chapman inspects a pen, and learns about the power of privilege. In 1978, young brown men were being arrested. With unemployment rising and the … Read more
Henry Oliver explores the corridors and changes happening at Auckland Museum, and what they say about Tāmaki Makaurau. Cities change. It’s part of their essential nature. A product of their population, cities are constantly transforming as they attract new people and lose others. While the hills and the water and sky remain, essentially, unchanged, everything … Read more
Te Papa’s eighth iwi exhibition Ko Rongowhakaata is currently showing at the national museum in Wellington – showcasing taonga, contemporary art, and powerful stories of survival and tenacity. In this essay, Rongowhakaata kaumatua-in-residence Thelma Karaitiana speaks of the journey from Te Kore to Te Papa. Te Kore From the nothingness of Te Kore and through … Read more
2017 was the 10th year of Auckland Museum’s popular panel discussion series, LATE. The person behind LATE, Dina Jezdic, looks at the events’ role in giving the museum a modern, provocative voice. The creation of ‘museum’ as a public space, open to anybody, is a very radical concept. Today it is something we take for … Read more
Madeleine Chapman strikes a pose and mixes up a storm on Spark’s All Access Pass experience at the Volume exhibition in Auckland. “I think you should retake that one.” Laughing hysterically while trying not to cry, I looked at myself superimposed on to a Rip It Up magazine cover. There I was, eyelids half-closed, as … Read more
The day after the Brussels bombings, Auckland’s War Memorial Museum released a bizarre statement on history, terror and good vs evil. What on earth were they thinking, asks Janet McAllister. Who said it: George W Bush or Auckland Museum? 1. “Terror only wins if we flinch.” 2. “Terrorists commit atrocities because they want the civilized … Read more