Te Papa Press

08/12/2025

Join Te Papa’s Natural History curators on 10 December for a fun and informative array of short talks on New Zealand’s native species, from shells, to plants, birds, insects and fish!

Consider this your festive end-of-year catch up with Te Papa’s Natural History team, and come along with your questions for Q&A after the talks!

Wednesday 10 December, 1pm

Te Taiao | Nature, L2, Te Papa

Book now at the link below!

08/12/2025

You can buy Michael's excellent Wild Wellington nature guide (and accompaning calendar) at the links below 🦭

03/12/2025

Are you searching for a great Christmas present for the Aotearoa art lover or natural history enthusiast in your life? 'Groundwork: The art and writing of Emily Cu***ng Harris' is written by Michele Leggott & Catherine Field-Dodgson and published by Te Papa Press. It's a luscious tribute to an extraordinary New Zealand botanical artist! Part inspired creative endeavour and part determined detective work, our pukapuka explores Emily's life and themes of colonial history, women's history, poetry, botanical art, comets and eclipses. As reviewer David Hill notes: “Engaging, lucid, scrupulously researched. … This book is a triumph.” RRP: $60

02/12/2025

Central Otago Couture: The Eden H**e Collection book is a fabulous Christmas gift 🎁

26/11/2025

Ned Barraud, author and illustrator of Māngo: Sharks and Rays of Aotearoa and Rākau: The Ancient Forests of Aotearoa, is currently exhibiting a collection of artworks at Lockett Gallery in Whanganui!

See more at the link below.

26/11/2025

21/11/2025

Gifts for kids! 📚
These books channel the mana and knowledge held in Te Papa to inspire wonder and curiosity in our tamariki.

🇼🇸 Going to Te Papa | Asiasiga ‘i le Falemata‘aga i Te Papa by Dahlia Malaeulu
A board book for babies, toddlers and their families, featuring measina – or treasures – from Sāmoa in the collection of Te Papa.

🪲 My Little Book of Bugs
A board book for New Zealand babies and their whānau, featuring amazing photos of bugs in the Te Papa collection.

👶 My New Zealand Board Books (123, ABC & Colours) by James Brown
Beautiful and interesting paintings, sculptures, photographs and objects from Te Papa’s collections take centre stage in these books for very young readers.

🌳 Rākau by Ned Barraud
This engrossing and beautifully illustrated book helps young readers discover what makes our rākau (trees) so special and worthy of our care.

🎨 The New Zealand Art Activity Book by Helen Lloyd
100+ art activities based on the collection of Te Papa.

🌿 The Nature Activity Book by Rachel Haydon, illustrated by Pippa Keel
From experiments and observation to conservation and mindfulness this activity-packed book stimulates curious minds and encourages tamariki to relate to the natural world around them.

🏖️ The Beach Activity Book by Rachel Haydon, illustrated by Pippa Keel
Developed to inspire curious young minds to explore and appreciate our beaches, lakes, rivers and streams.

🐛 The Incredible Insects of Aotearoa by Simon Pollard and Phil Sirvid
A fun, fascinating and revealing book about the strange and wonderful critters of Aotearoa New Zealand.

🕷️ Why is That Spider Dancing? by Simon Pollard and Phil Sirvid
Two spider experts share the magic, secrets, mysteries and marvels of Aotearoa New Zealand’s abundance of eight-legged beasties.

🦑 Whiti by Helen Lloyd, illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White
Dive into the mysterious world of the colossal squid!

🦈 Mangō by Ned Barraud
The fascinating lives of Aotearoa New Zealand’s sharks and rays.

17/11/2025

The perfect present for the nature-lover in your life, the Wild Wellington 2026 Calendar is a seasonal guide to the wildlife and wild places of Te Upoko-o-te-Ika 🦭🌿🦋🐦‍⬛

For this calendar, wildlife expert Michael Szabo has broken down the information in his nature guide ‘Wild Wellington Ngā Taonga Taiao’ to provide month-by-month highlights of what to see where and when in our gorgeous capital city and the surrounding region.

Available exclusively at select bookshops in the Wellington region and at Te Papa Store!

17/11/2025

“From the iconic to the previously unpublished, the selection includes outstanding photographs by the Burton Brothers, Leslie Adkin, Spencer Digby, John Pascoe, Brian Brake, Frank Hofmann, Ans Westra, Eric Lee-Johnson, Marti Friedlander, Laurence Aberhart, Ann Shelton, Glenn Jowitt, Anne Noble, Yvonne Todd – and many more.”

Thank you to John Daly-Peoples for your review of the new edition of New Zealand Photography Collected by Athol McCredie.

See the full review at the link below.

17/11/2025

Last month, Paula Green used Rākau: The Ancient Forests of Aotearoa by Ned Barraud as a prompt for Poetry Box’s October Poem Challenge. As Paula wrote: “ It was like a native forest of tree poems arrived in my email box!"

You can see a few of the wonderful Rākau-inspired poems written by schoolkids around Aotearoa here, and the all the poems at the link below.

Thank you, Paula for choosing Rākau for a Poem Challenge. And thank you to all the tamariki who were inspired by Ned’s book to write a poem 🌳

12/11/2025

Pip Adam talked to Jesse Mulligan about, among other things, the Whitireia Publishing Course – Aotearoa New Zealand’s only full-time industry-led qualification in book publishing. Enrolments are open now, see the link below for more information!

Pip's discussion of the course starts at 8.30

A few weeks ago Pip Adam was lucky enough to be part of the launch of Laura Vincent's new novel Hoods Landing. Today she chats to Jesse about three book things related to Hood's Landing. Overseas Experience by Nicola Andrews (Aporo Press, 2025) local loser podcast with host Damien Levi The Whitireia...