Otago Museum
Otago Museum
Photos of the Live Butterfly Experience
baleen on a whale bonene
Kiwi
the egg
Polynesian Gallery
Kiribati and Tuvalu
The Polynesian gallery displays items from islands encompassed by Hawaii, Easter Island and Tonga, plus Micronesia. Among the many highlights are an Easter Island moai statue, the only known piece of pre-European stone carving from Pitcairn Island and a red and yellow feather cape formerly owned by Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii.
Easter Island
The Melanesian gallery displays artifacts made and used by people from the islands of this area of the Pacific, from New Guinea to Fiji. Highlights include a superb group of carved figures from the Santa Cruz Islands, 3300 year old Lapita artifacts from the Kamgot site in the Anir Island group, malangan carvings from New Ireland, Asmat art, tree fern sculptures from Vanuatu, and fantastic masks from the Torres Strait Islands.
Samoan dwelling
Kava ceremony
Kava bowl
Polynesian
New Guinea
Tami Island Mask
cloth from bark
Asmat
double canoe
Fijian
Cook Islands
Maori cultural artifacts
model of a Maori settlement
Explore the Tangata Whenua Gallery, with its impressive displays of Maori cultural artifacts. The design of this gallery centers around the protocol of a marae, with local pieces to the left and northern provenance material displayed on the right.
skirt
Maori canoe