Colin Smillie is the Public Programmes Manager Science for Experience Wellington.

A rainbow is always a beautiful thing, a vibrant slice of colour in the sky. You might think understanding the principles behind it would take away the wonder, but for me it makes the phenomenon even more remarkable.

We used liquid nitrogen to show how differences in temperature and pressure affect liquids, gasses, and solids. Through dipping a rose in liquid nitrogen so the rose can be smashed against the table, or dumping boiling water into the nitrogen to form a cloud, we illustrated how atoms move in different states. Adding liquid nitrogen to a “chemical solution” of cream, vanilla, and chocolate to make ice cream was a popular way to round off the scientific concepts of the day.

We can’t teach all the science involved and we don’t try. My job is to spark curiosity about the wonders of science, technology, engineering and maths. One of the best parts is watching kids rushing to tell their friends and family about the cool things they’ve just seen and done, as they leave the workshops. They should leave with lots of questions answered, but also paying more attention to the world around them and the desire to go and find out more for themselves.

Contemporary Māori artists from Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui are giving aroha to undocumented taonga in Te Ohonga: The Awakening, a new exhibition at Te Waka Huia o Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho Wellington Museum.

The process of developing the exhibition opened our eyes to the cultural value of taonga in our collection, and also to the respect, deep knowledge and skill exhibited by the artists who responded to them. I co-curated the show with Toi Māori Tātai Taura Dr Anna-Marie White (Te Ātiawa), the driving force behind the exhibition. Anna is incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about toi Māori and I was privileged to ride in her slipstream through the development of the exhibition.

Like many taonga collected by Pākehā in the late 19th /early 20th century, the history, stories and whakapapa of these taonga were not documented, leading to them sitting silently in our storage site for almost two decades. Museum staff, including myself, often feel frustrated that these histories were not recorded. This is partly a reflection of late 19th century Pākehā thinking, where taonga Māori were incorrectly perceived as curios, objet d’art or relics of a dying warrior race. The idea of keeping detailed records of their cultural use was probably not top of mind for George Pain.

More broadly, museums are products of late 18th century European imperial expansion. They were developed to showcase cultural and natural history material, following the scientific thinking of the time. Wellington Museum, being a relatively young museum, does not have too much imperial baggage, but we do have the George Pain collection to grapple with.

We are grateful to the artists who dedicated their time, passion and energy to this project, creating exquisite new works in a wide variety of media and practices, full of depth and meaning that awhi (support, embrace) these taonga. We filmed and interviewed many as they created their work, capturing the expert knowledge imbued in their artistry, their kōrero with the original makers of the taonga, and the insights they provided about the George Pain collection. You can see these poignant interviews, in the exhibition and on our website.

We opened the exhibition with an uplifting powhiri and later, over a cup of tea I heard that George Pain’s grandnephew Dennis Gibbs had come to the opening of his own accord. Dennis was overjoyed to see the care and respect being given to these taonga and to George Pain’s legacy, bringing the story full circle.

teohonga.nz

I came across a couple of cruise ship passengers at Cable Car Museum a couple of weeks ago, on a typically blustery Wellington day. One of the women picked up a T-shirt featuring the word Wellington being buffeted by gusty clouds and said, “Look it’s Wellington! And it really is windy!” and they burst out laughing.

They only docked in Wellington Harbour for a day, but they’ll take that moment away with them and always remember when they were in Wellington it was wild and windy, but beautiful. It’s a great example of how we can make an immediate impact and connection between our place and the people who visit our cultural institutions like Cable Car Museum, City Gallery, Wellington Museum, Capital E, Nairn St Cottage and Space Place.

We put a lot of thought into these lines, like our Wahine Mīharo range created to champion women around the time of the Fifa Women’s World Cup. It’s a product we thought women would buy to treat themselves but when a Dad came in asking for help to find his daughter’s size, we realised the range was also a way for people to celebrate their daughters, partners, mothers and other important women in their lives.

That moment of connection and making people happy is always something I look out for and regularly see at Space Place where our ‘I need my Space’ range of products is flying out the door. It makes everyone laugh, although they interpret the message in different ways. Some want to make a statement about looking after themselves, some love anything to do with space and others are just tickled by an astronaut taking a moment on the moon to sit on a deck chair.

If you’re looking for a gift this holiday season, consider taking home a piece of Pōneke and thinking about supporting the many stores in our city that champion local makers. We consider it our responsibility to celebrate our city. You can, too.

I meet Kavi Jaz Faulkner-Ruka at a cafe in Tauranga and she hands me a soft black folder. Inside is a sweet piece of history – two photographs of her mother Lorrayne Ruka-Issac (Ngāpuhi) dressed in her cable car uniform, a retro illustrated coaster of one of Wellington’s famous red cable cars travelling up that steep incline and, sweetest of all, a calico cloth printed with an image of Lorrayne’s face, hand drawn koru motifs swirling around the edge of the fabric like a frame. On the cloth, the caption reads, “It’s me and damn, I’m good.” This cloth was a personalised leaving gift presented to Lorrayne in 1981 by the Kelburn Cable Car staff.

Ruka-Issac was the first woman funicular tram driver in New Zealand and damn, she was good at it.

My parents moved from Niue to Niu Silani (New Zealand) in mid 1967. 

My Matua Tanē (father) Tom Etuata Snr received an Inland Revenue scholarship to work in Ueligitoni (Wellington) – so he and my Matua Fifine (mother) Akeletama made the decision to move to Niu Silani. 

They arrived on the ship SS Tofua which sailed to Niu Silani and docked in Okalana (Auckland). From there they travelled down to Ueligitoni. 

Pasifika families migrating to Ueligitoni supported each other as they settled into a new country. On Aho Tapu (Sunday), some Pasifika families would congregate at the Pacific Island Church (PIC) in Newtown. This place was an important support base in the 1960s, 70s and 80s – not only as a place of worship but also for maintaining ties with other Pasifika families living and settling in Ueligitoni. 

By the early 1970s The Niue Maaga (Community) in Ueligitoni was tupuhake (growing). This led to Niuean Minister Reverend Lagi Sipeli and his wife Mokataufoou (Moka) Sipeli arriving from Okolana to Ueligitoni to provide much needed spiritual guidance and support.

It was evident that there wasn’t enough taimi (time) and space for the Niuean community to have their own Fekafekau (Service) at PIC, so in October 1977 the Niuean congregation moved from the PIC Church to Fakalataha (join) the Palagi (European) congregation at St James Presbyterian Church on Adelaide Road, Newtown. 

It was a perfect union between the Palagi and Niuean congregations, and both communities prospered. Many Niuean children from that time in the 1980s (including me) remember days of Sunday Schools, White Sunday Services, haircutting ceremonies, big families getting together, big gatherings and even bigger feasts.  

In 2013 the St James English Presbyterian Church dissolved and the Niuean congregation moved to St Giles in Kilbirnie. The St James building was considered an earthquake risk and closed for a time, until it was renovated, becoming an up–market apartment complex in 2016.  

Fakaaue Lahi (Big Thank You) to Moka Sipeli for kindly donating these hats to  

Ueligitoni Fale fakataataa tau tufuga tuai  (Wellington Museum). 

There’s a kind of alchemy when school groups come to our museum. They bring a variety of backgrounds, experiences and a sense of wonder, and we ignite their curiosity. That’s the beautiful, unpredictable magic of museum learning.

Excited school groups are a familiar sight in Te Waka Huia o Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho Wellington Museum. There’s often a number of firsts: first time in a museum, first visit to the CBD, first visit to the city. The bus trip itself is often one of the highlights of the trip!

But there’s a deeper intent to our school visits, carefully crafted by our teachers and Learning Specialists working to support Te Ao Tangata, the refreshed national social sciences curriculum that includes Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.

Claire, a Learning Specialist, might draw the children’s attention to two street signs from Berhampore: Waripori St and Te Wharepōuri St. They are a powerful example of how the naming and renaming of places can illustrate mana whenua and local histories. Tamariki readily share examples and observations from their neighbourhoods; Remutaka comes quickly to their minds.

In the Attic on the top floor, another Learning Specialist Kurt, often gathers students around a hīnaki (eel trap). There’s always peals of laughter when Kurt shudders at the memory of dispatching tuna (eel). Through sharing their own experiences of catching tuna, the conversation centres on relationships with the awa and moana of Te Whanganui-a-Tara where the children have spent time.

In a museum dedicated to telling local stories, learning programmes support children and young people’s curiosity about where they stand. There are layers of stories and hidden, often difficult histories to explore here beneath the carpet, behind the street signs and hīnaki, and even in the architecture of the Bond Store building.

We look for intriguing, playful, and awe-inspiring ways into serious subject matter. This winter school groups sang waiata to the vast night sky in Te Ara Whānui ki te Rangi Space Place’s planetarium, created cartoon-like postcards in response to Ayesha Green’s Folk Nationalism exhibition at Te Whare Toi City Gallery and produced their own local stories in Nuku te Ao Capital E’s OnTV studio. Through each of these experiences, children and young people used their voices to share stories that have often been missing from the public eye.

Enabling children and young people to learn from our whenua and explore their relationships to its histories contributes to the vibrancy of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Why don’t you come with them next time? They’ll have a lot to tell you about our place and the kind of city we have been, are and could be.

These objects reflect different aspects of Wellington’s rich recent history. The hard drive was hit 213 times by a police inspector after a High Court decision that a raid on his home by police in 2014 had been illegal. Police copied Hager’s files onto the hard drive but didn’t want him to access other content on it, so in a fit of pique, made a mess of it before handing it back to the surprised and bemused journalist.

Wellington Museum commissioned Xoë Hall to paint the artwork Te Whanganui-a-Tara to visualise the creative energy of Wellington, the atua Māori and natural forces that energise our place. Commissioning this artwork also gave us an opportunity to preserve something of the cityscape which Xoë has helped create. Her distinctive mural artworks which cloak our city might not survive the decades, as weather, vandalism and building changes see them slowly disappear.

Wellington Museum, in the Bond Store on the waterfront, is one of the city’s oldest buildings and was once a maritime museum. We still have a strong maritime collection, but in recent years we have actively collected Wellington things that express the creativity and innovation of Pōneke.  I argue that in the case of Wellington, its golden age was the period after 1990 when the vibe around the Absolutely Positively Wellington campaign saw the city reinvigorated and transformed into the creative capital it still is. We collect things that express this along with things from all periods in our history.

Next time you visit, have a look at our display of recently acquired things. Under the theme We Collect Wellington, you’ll see the hard drive, an umbrella donated by Dame Catherine Healy – a symbol of visibility for sex workers, the unwieldy Poly 1 computer made by the staff and students of Wellington Polytechnic in 1981 and a hockey stick, teddy bear and towelling sunhat donated by the Manning family of Tawa.

Our challenge is to reflect the diversity and richness of Wellington’s social history, but we can’t do this alone. We’re collecting for future generations to ponder and enjoy. So, if you have things that are interesting or insightful, with poignant or funny stories associated with them, get in touch with us to see if they might be right for Wellington Museum’s collections.

We’ll be changing the We Collect Wellington display in a couple of months, so come and have a look at the current objects while you can. The next display is under wraps, but I can say it will be a real Buzz.

Contact us at collections@experiencewellington.org.nz

Wellington Museum’s curators suggested Xoë create a painting that formed a visual personification of the whenua, moana, awa, maunga, hau and ngahere of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). The idea being that this would form a visual pepeha of this place.

Xoë was also asked to create the artwork in a way that would inspire rangatahi to respect and honour the environment, but give hope and courage for the environmental challenges they face in the future.

Of the creative process, Xoë says:

“As I was drawing I was trying to channel the energy of Pōneke city, wrapped up in the excitement of the wild wind sweeping over the whenua – which embraces the action but does not get swept away.

The atua that revealed themselve’s within the drawing are Papatūānuku – Earth Mother, symbolising the whenua; Tāwhirimātea – atua of wind and storms; and Hineraukatauri – atua wahine of Māori musical instruments, who is often personified as the case moth. We also have a guest appearance from Mahuika, atua of fire.

These atua come together to form a kaitiaki hybrid of the elements and creative vibes of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, working in unison.”

The stars of night can be seen reflected in the waters of the harbour, with the ridges of hills found in the form of Papatūānuku.

Many other symbolic elements, or ‘easter eggs’ as Xoë calls them, can be found in the artwork.

Space Place shines a light on Puanga and Matariki

By Colin Smillie, Experience Wellington’s Public Programmes Manager Science. 

At five o’clock on a cold and still morning last year, I joined 500 members of the public for a unique New Zealand experience as we gathered to share kai on Aotearoa’s first public holiday to celebrate Matariki. A karakia was given, the stars rose above the hills and images of loved ones who had passed away in the previous year were displayed. 

As a science communicator, I know that the Matariki star cluster, visible around the world, holds significance in many different cultures, but it’s hard to put into words how moving it was to watch the sunrise on the Māori New Year. It felt like a celebration that excluded nobody and included everyone. 

Matariki sits relatively near the Earth, just 444 or so light-years away, so it’s the most easily seen star cluster in our skies. Ancient Greeks named it the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, because they could see seven stars with the naked eye. In Japan, it’s known as Subaru, meaning ‘unite’. Here in Aotearoa, Māori astronomers see nine stars: Te Iwa o Matariki, the nine stars of Matariki. 

This important star cluster highlights our close connections to nature, encouraging us to remember the past, celebrate the present, and look towards the future. Across Aotearoa New Zealand iwi, hapū, and whānau tell different pūrākau, or stories, connected with Matariki. In Wellington, at Space Place Te Ara Whānui ki te Rangi, we celebrate Matariki and Puanga by sharing these stories with our wider community. 

The public holiday is centred around the Matariki star cluster appearing in the early morning sky, but the star Puanga is also used as the marker for the beginning of the Māori New Year. This is because Puanga, or Rigel the brightest star in the constellation known as Orion, rises earlier and higher in the sky than Matariki, so is more visible in some parts of the country before the rising of the sun. 

In Porirua, Ngāti Toa iwi sees Matariki much more easily than in Whanganui-a-Tara, as the hills surrounding Wellington tend to block the view of the star cluster. On the west coast of the North Island, Taranaki Whānui use Puanga as the marker for the start of the New Year. When Puanga rises in the morning sky above Taranaki Maunga, this is the signal for new planting. In Ōtepoti Dunedin, Kāi Tahu celebrates both Puaka (Puanga) and Matariki because being at a lower latitude means Matariki is a little too low on the horizon to be easily seen behind the city’s many hills. 

To many iwi, the setting of Matariki in the evening sky signals the beginning of the harvest season. The rising again in the pre-dawn sky several weeks later, aligning with the moon in its third phase, signals the time to start planting and preparing for the coming year. That’s when communities gather to give thanks for the earth’s abundance, to reflect upon the year that has gone, and to share hopes and aspirations for the year ahead. It is a reminder of the importance of living in harmony with nature and a time to commemorate those who have died in the previous year. 

If you want to learn more about Puanga and Matariki and the significance of the season, join us next week at Space Place Te Ara Whānui ki te Rangi or visit anytime to find out more about mātauranga Māori and our place in the cosmos.