How was Golden Days put together?
This idea required the development of robust robotics which could sustain years of use. Model-maker Rob Uivel built the robotics. In all there are twenty-six different motorised robots, including a motor mower, machine gun, photograph album, and a tui.
Alan Honey was asked to produce computer programmes that direct the images and audio in sequence with the robotics.
Dean Cato supervised the buying of all of the props for the ‘junkshop’. This involved a long search for items that would be typical of a junkshop and have a recognisable New Zealand identity or flavour.
Head researcher Kay Seatter-Dunbar and other researchers travelled around New Zealand searching for archival film footage and images, both still and moving. One of the most exciting finds was colour footage filmed in Greymouth of the 1953 visit by Queen Elizabeth II.
The thirteen-minute film is projected onto a four by two-metre screen, has a stereophonic sound track, and is made up of 2500 images of New Zealand. The 'junkshop view' of the street represents a New Zealand city at 5.00pm.
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What historic New Zealand events are shown in Golden Days?
- Mt Tarawera eruption (1886)
- Royal visit by the Queen (1953)
- Tangiwai disaster (Christmas Eve 1953)
- Napier earthquake (1931)
- Ballentynes fire in Christchurch (18 November 1947)
- Inangahua earthquake (1968)
- Wahine sinking (1968)
- Mt Erebus plane crash (1979)
- The death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk (1974)
- Young people at James K Baxter's funeral
- Princess Te Puea’s burial
- Poverty Bay floods (1950)
- Hutt Valley floods (1976)
- Mount Ruapehu erupting (1996)
- Dame Whina Cooper on the Māori Land March (1975)
- Bastion Point
- Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
Further reading is available in Te Aka Matua Te Papa Library and Information Centre.
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What can you tell me about the Glass Treaty in Signs of a Nation | Ngā Tohu Kotahitanga?
If for decades the Treaty of Waitangi was an obscure, neglected, rat-eaten document almost destroyed by fire and water, today the reverse is true. In recent times the Treaty has been increasingly regarded as the founding document of our nation.
Te Papa's Treaty, a copy of the official 1840 version, stands eight metres high in the exhibition Signs of a Nation | Ngā Tohu Kotahitanga. It weighs three-quarters of a tonne. Thanks to modern technology, it has been enshrined in the beauty and permanence of glass.
This double-layered icon speaks to us across time. The deepest layer carries an enlargement of the original signed Māori version of the Treaty in the tattered form it has come down to us today. Therefore some signatures are missing. This is a reminder both of its years of obscurity and its capacity to somehow survive.
To supply the missing parts, the complete text is laid over the original document - so we can see exactly how the Treaty was when it was signed.
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What is Mana Whenua about?
The Mana Whenua exhibition captures and conveys the richness, complexity, and dynamism of the Māori people - the tangata whenua (indigenous people) of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The concept Mana Whenua, like the exhibition, has many layers of meaning and tells of the important relationships and values of Māori people to the land, as well as to the wider culture.
Mana Whenua resonates with the voices of the Māori people and taonga tuku iho, (treasures handed down), such as kahu (cloaks), the meeting house Te Hau ki Turanga, and the storehouse Te Takinga. These taonga (treasures) reconnect through whakapapa (genealogy) to the living descendants of today in dynamic and meaningful ways.
Mana Whenua presents and celebrates the mana (power, authority, dignity) of our culture through taonga like waka (canoes), wharenui (meeting houses), waiata (songs), korero (talk), and most importantly, people.
There are many underlying themes and stories to Mana Whenua, but the unifying concept is whakapapa and identity. Personal stories and narratives combine with the whakapapa of taonga to evoke an experience that Māori and many other peoples will readily identify with.
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What is Passports about?
Passports explores and celebrates the remarkable stories of the people who migrated to New Zealand. Focusing on all nationalities other than Māori, this exhibition presents the objects and ideas the migrants brought with them and examines how they adjusted to the new land.
The cultural richness and diversity of the regional lifestyles of British and Irish migrants are screened on video and maps. Images of other regions, including China, India, Dalmatia, Greece, and the Pacific, tell of other regional lifestyles.
The Community Gallery in Passports highlights the contribution made to New Zealand by different ethnic communities. The exhibition in this gallery changes every two years. The current exhibition features Indian communities in New Zealand.
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What is Signs of a Nation | Ngā Tohu Kotahitanga about?
Signs of a Nation | Ngā Tohu Kotahitanga is a living commentary on the Treaty of Waitangi and its centrality to the wider New Zealand community. The Treaty is fundamental to our vision of this nation.
As the visitor moves through a thicket of pole clusters, voices can be heard and visual images appear. These present the different views of New Zealanders on the Treaty - like snapshots in time. On the walls, personal stories of people whose lives have been affected by the Treaty bring to life its words in English and Māori
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What can you tell me about the ‘Spanish helmet’?
An iron helmet dated to 1580 and previously thought to be Spanish was found in Wellington Harbour some time before 1904. It has since been repeatedly cited as evidence of European contact with New Zealand prior to Abel Tasman in 1642.
It is a ‘close helmet’. Though the style is European, it is not necessarily Spanish. It could have been made in England or northern Italy. Its state of preservation suggests it was immersed in seawater for only a short time. It shows no signs of marine encrustation, although it could have been cleaned. Archival material in the Museum shows that so little is known about the helmet that it cannot be used as evidence of European contact with New Zealand before Tasman.
The helmet may have been used as ship's ballast - obsolete armour was often used this way. It may have been a souvenir brought out by an immigrant. The helmet may have also been given as a presentation piece or as trade to local Māori in much the same way as armour was presented to Hongi Hika, Titore, and a sword to Te Rauparaha.
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What can you tell me about Awesome Forces?
Awesome Forces tells the story of how the New Zealand landmass and landscape has formed.
It begins by looking at the earth's interior and then teaches us about plate tectonics. We learn about plate movement, how plate motion is measured, and how the plates affect New Zealand.
A video shows plate motion through the last 160 million years. It describes New Zealand’s split from Gondwanaland eighty-five million years ago. It also presents geological evidence that the ancestors of New Zealand's unique fauna and flora may have travelled as cargo on the New Zealand 'continent' when it split from Gondwanaland.
Awesome Forces also teaches us about the major processes that shape our landmass: earthquakes, active faults, volcanism, and rapid erosion due to weather-related processes. There are many interactives including a shake-house simulating an earthquake, an online seismic station, a virtual drum, and video footage of the 1995-96 eruptions of Mt Ruapehu.
A video relates the Māori explanation of the origin of New Zealand as widely accepted at the time of first European contact in the late 1700s.
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What can you tell me about the Body Odyssey exhibition?
Body Odyssey - journey through the human body opened on 18 August 2001 and closed on 1 February 2002. It attracted 110,484 visitors.
Bronwyn Simes was the Concept Developer and Andy Lowe was the Exhibition Manager.
The exhibition was targeted to children and was originally developed by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, in New York. Te Papa bought the rights and licences, enabling the exhibition team to add approximately twenty per cent new component, focusing on topics relevant to New Zealand.
In developing the New Zealand component, the team worked with the New Zealand Ministry of Heath Manatu Hauora, and various other organisations such as The Cancer Society, Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand, and the Heart Foundation.
The exhibition had seven major sections: ‘Digestive system’, ‘Blood circulation’, ‘Respiratory system’, ‘Skin’, ‘Getting sick’, ‘Getting well’, and ‘Brain box’.
The major sponsor for the exhibition was Merck Sharp & Dohme.
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What can you tell me about A Private View - treasures of Impressionism and beyond that was on at Te Papa in 1998?
A Private View - treasures of Impressionism and beyond was exhibited from 10 April to 7 June 1998. The exhibition was curated by Tim Walker, former Senior Art Curator at Te Papa. A Private View attracted 51,184 visitors.
All seventeen paintings on display were loaned to Te Papa by one private collector, Mr Allbritton from Texas.
The paintings lead the audience though eight decades of innovation during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
The artists who featured in the exhibition were:
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904)
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Henri Martin (1860-1943)
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Max Pechstein (1881-1955)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Camille Pissaro (1830-1903)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
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What can you tell me about the More or Less exhibition?
More or Less - art and fashion was exhibited in 2001. The exhibition was curated by Ian Wedde with Gerda Nana as the Exhibition Manager. The two artists whose works featured were Pip Culbert (the ‘less’ component) and Shigeyuki Kihara (the ‘more’ component).
Pip Culbert was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1938 and lives in London and Croagnes, France. She is married to expatriate New Zealand artist Bill Culbert and her art often contains New Zealand references. Her works in this exhibition were pared-down clothes and elegant skeletons, asking the viewer to look at the idea behind the garment. Sometimes it is only the label that seems substantial within the skeleton of the designer garment. Seven of Pip’s works were on display in this exhibition.
Shigeyuki Kihara was born in Samoa in 1975, of Japanese and Samoan parents. She has lived in both Japan and Samoa, and came to New Zealand when she was sixteen. Her twenty-eight screen-printed T-shirts are a collection she calls The Teunoa‘I - Adorn to Excess. The T-shirts are street-smart contemporary references to Pacific culture, satirising the fashion and advertising industries’ glamorising of the Pacific. The collection also draws attention to some of the large corporations who employ Pacific Islanders as low-paid workers.
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The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition was open at Te Papa from 20 December 2002 to 21 April 2003. The total number of visitors was 219,539, making the Lord of the Rings exhibition the most popular in the Museum’s history.
The exhibition was developed and delivered by Te Papa in association with New Line Cinema. Story!Inc was the design and development company contracted by Te Papa to deliver the exhibition. The props, costumes, and artworks were supplied by Weta Workshops and Three Foot Six.
The exhibition featured costumes and props used by the actors during filming. These included costume designs by Ngila Dickson along with the final outfits, armour, props, weapons, models, prosthetics, original art works, and interactives. Audio-visual areas in each section provided a glimpse into the science of movie-making. At the centre of the exhibition was the One Ring.
Following its closure at Te Papa, the exhibition is presently touring museums in London, Singapore, Boston, and Sydney.
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Waikato
The rolling farmlands of Hinuera in the Waikato were used to shoot exteriors for Hobbiton and the Shire.
Taupo
Scenes involving Lord Sauron's domain of Mordor are represented by the rocky plateau of Tongariro National Park.
Kaitoke, Upper Hutt
While much of Rivendell was computer generated and studio based, several exterior scenes of the house of Elrond and home of Arwen were filmed in Kaitoke.
Lower Hutt
Scenes involving the fortress of Minas Tirith, Isengard, Minas Morgul, and Helms Deep were shot on location in Lower Hutt, in the Dry Creek Quarry.
Wellington
The capital was used as a base of operations. Studio scenes were recorded here. Various location scenes were filmed on the outskirts of the city.
Nelson
Nelson locations that feature in the Lord of the Rings films include Mount Owen (Dimril Dale hillside) and Mount Olympus (Eregion Hills). Many props for the film were created by Nelson's innovative artists. Even the beer was brewed in Nelson.
Tarras, Wanaka
Many of the sequences featuring the Black Riders were filmed here.
Ian Brodie’s The Lord of the Rings - Location Guide Book gives further information about these locations.
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What was the film shown in the ANZAC exhibition?
Title: Gallipoli - the New Zealand Story
Director: D O C Williams
Producer: Allan Martin
Date: 1984
Made by: Television New Zealand
Length of film: 73 minutes
Based on: The book Gallipoli - the New Zealand story by Chris Pugsley
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What garments were displayed in the exhibition Kiri's Dresses - a glimpse into a diva's wardrobe?
1 Long-lasting favourite (Mobil Song Quest dress)
2 Sari and hei pounamu (twenty-first birthday dress)
3 Family tradition (traditional dress)
4 Grand style (Manon Lescaut operatic version)
5 Desdemona (nightdress and dressing gown)
6 First concert dress (Elvis dress)
7 Bird of paradise (Royal Wedding dress and hat)
8 Travelling light (purple sunflower cage)
9 Fairy princess (Telecom dress)
10 Greenwich beauty (Greenwich dress)
11 Seville style (Seville dress)
12 Wellington weather (Jellybean dress)
13 Christchurch colour (Mary Mary dress)
14 A contemporary take (millennium coat)
15 International birthday (fiftieth birthday dress and cape)
16 A royal performance (Jubilee dress)
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