Blog

In this blog, we speak to Auckland Museum's 2021 Wikimedian in Residence, Marty Blayney, about making sure the research contained in the Records of the Auckland Museum is used as widely as possible.

While the world grappled with COVID-19, the last thing on anyone's mind was how best to preserve the pandemic’s objects. But for Collection Manager History, Sarndra Lees, preserving the cultural artefacts of the COVID-19 pandemic was a top priority. In this blog, Sarndra offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes as she worked to preserve the story of the pandemic in objects.

Curator of Entomology, Natural Sciences, John Early discovered a species of introduced wasp previously unrecognised in New Zealand thanks to last year’s Level 4 Lockdown. He discusses how he made his unusual discovery.

This year for UNESCO World Book Day, Cataloguing Librarian Nina Whittaker highlights an extraordinary ANZAC story of courage, and the fight to print a newspaper against impossible odds.

In this blog, we look at the Museum’s spaces of remembrance and speak to Collection Manager (Online Cenotaph) Victoria Passau about our ongoing dedication to commemoration.

To mark this year's Pasifika Festival, Ruby Satele (Collection Manager, Pacific) details the delicate work that goes into caring for lei to ensure they, and the stories they tell, survive the test of time.

The Brunner Mine Disaster of 1896 remains New Zealand's worst worksite incident. Gail Romano, Associate Curator History and Wilma Blom, Curator Marine Invertebrates re-tell the stories of some of our country's worst mining tragedies and interrogate the social and economic repercussions of coal mining.

A year on from the first day of Aotearoa's first lockdown, Curator Manuscripts Nina Finigan and Curator History Lucy Mackintosh reflect on how they curated Covid for Auckland Museum.

TVNZ's new show National Treasures aims to discover the precious objects of national significance that people have in their own homes. Each week, we'll share other unseen-on-air objects from our collections that expand on the taonga explored in the show.

Even at the height of the war in South Africa with no access to romantic stationery, enterprising young soldiers made do. Associate Curator (History) Gail Romano examines a heartfelt note written on a torn piece of uniform.

Although instantly recognisable even to non-Māori, popular knowledge barely scratches the surface of the deep significance of hei tiki. Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Stories of Auckland Project Curator Tharron Bloomfield shines a light on just some of the hei tiki in the Museum's collection.

In this blog, Museum Conservator Valerie Tomlinson details the work involved in getting two enormous beasts ready for their close-ups.