THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED.
This is the 11am morning session. There is also a 5:30pm tour.
From 3000 year old pottery shards to obsidian spears and contemporary fashion, come behind the scenes and be surprised by Te Papa’s Pacific Cultures Collections.
The Pacific Cultures collection store houses thousands of objects covering textiles, tools, adornment, flags, weapons, household items and instruments from all over the Pacific. This tour will give an insight into some of the objects, offer fascinating stories and will showcase how Te Papa takes care of them. The store is hidden away from the hive of activity of the museum floor and is a haven for histories and reflection on our neighboring cultures.
Members only. Numbers limited.
Collection Manager Grace Hutton manages the store and is of Palmerston Atoll, Manihiki, Anaa (French Polynesia) , Welsh ethnicity. She has worked at Te Papa as a Kaitiaki Taonga, Collection Manager of Pacific Cultures, since 2004 caring for over 16,000 objects from Te Moana Nui o kiva (Pacific) and some diaspora communities living in the United States . Her role covers storing collection items appropriately, making objects available for exhibition and loans, moving them to the Conservation lab and making sure information is databased correctly.
Photo by Mark Tantrum
We’ll be shown around the store by Curators Sean Mallon and Rachel Yates. Sean specialises in the social and cultural history of Pacific peoples in New Zealand. He is currently researching the cultural history of Samoan tattooing, and issues relating to the agency and activism of Pacific peoples in museums. Rachel’s personal kaupapa is to work alongside Pacific communities and advocate space for Pacific narratives and histories from within Aotearoa New Zealand and across the wider Pacific region. She’s currently engaged in ongoing research of Pacific women and migration in the 21st century.