Auckland Museum blog

Curators and collections staff from our natural sciences team have been kept busy this week with two very rare finds for New Zealand waters.

On Saturday an oceanic whitetip shark, pregnant with 11 pups, washed up on Muriwai Beach and then on Tuesday a point-tailed sunfish was found on Omaha Beach.

The Museum’s Head of Natural Sciences Dr Tom Trnski has been called out to both unexpected finds and says both of the animals – and the shark pups – will be added to museum collections in New Zealand to contribute to what we know about these species.

“This sunfish is a rare find for New Zealand and, in fact, the point-tailed sunfish is a rare find even globally so not much is known about this species. The Masturus lanceolatus or sharptail/point-tailed sunfish is typically found in temperate and tropical waters and rarely seen close to the shore.”

“We would like to maintain the sunfish as a whole specimen to add a museum collection so we have only carried out an external examination, and from that examination we’ve not been able to identify a cause for the sunfish stranding.”

“Sunfish can be damaged in storms leading to injury or death but this one appears to be in excellent condition. Sunfish have also been known to die after eating plastic bags which look not unlike their diet of salps and jellyfish so this is a possible cause. Another possibility is that the sunfish has been overwhelmed by internal parasites.”

Also of interest to Dr Trnski and natural history collections manager Severine Hannam, who also examined the sunfish, were the parasites found on the sunfish – a marine leech and a type of copepod.

You can learn more about this type of sunfish and see footage of one swimming in the Galapagos Islands here http://australianmuseum.net.au/Sharptail-Sunfish-Masturus-lanceolatus

The 2.6m oceanic whitetip shark which was found washed up on Muriwai Beach over the weekend is currently in formalin as part of the fixation or embalming process to prepare it for Auckland Museum’s collections

The 100kg deceased shark was found to be pregnant after she washed up at Muriwai Beach.

“By adding her to our collections she will be available for scientists for future research and the fixation or embalming process preserves the specimen so it will be available for years and years to come.”

“It is the only whole specimen in a museum in New Zealand. She was a mature female and at maximum size – she weighed in at 100kg and is in fact she is the largest recorded for the Southern Hemisphere.”

Six of the shark’s 11 pups are also going into the museum’s collection, the other five pups were washed away.

Last week I stood above an East Coast beach with a Cook’s petrel in hand hoping it was prepared for its flight. As I opened my hands it unfolded its wings. I gently lifted it up and let it go.

Within the last fortnight Auckland Museum has received three wayward Cook’s petrels. One unfortunate bird was found dead in a backyard in Devonport and was donated to the museum’s research collection. But two others have been found, alive and well, near the museum’s building needing the help of staff to get back on course.

The pelagic Cook’s petrel (Pterodroma cookii) breeds only in New Zealand and it is currently on the move north. Little Barrier/Hauturu Island (‘resting place of the wind’) in the Hauraki Gulf supports 98% of the world’s population of this little seabird – but many are heading overseas for their first time and their GPS is a little off.

During spring adult Cook’s petrels, weighing in at a mere 200 grams, come together to form pairs and dig burrows of up to three metres under the roots of trees.  Around November one white egg is laid and incubated by both parents. After hatching in December a parent will guard the chick for a few days before it is left on its own, to be fed only every 2^nd or 3^rd night. They were once vulnerable to predation by the Pacific rat or kiore during this time but a successful Department of Conservation programme in 2004 has eradicated kiore from Hauturu, increasing fledging success from 5% to 70%.

Cook’s petrel eggs from Auckland Museum’s collection.

At about 90 days the chick fledges and the parents leave, for good. Now on their own full time the chicks spend a few nights exploring and climbing trees searching for take-off sites. Eventually they take flight from mid-March to mid-April, however, some are currently getting a little lost and dazzled by city lights, including the two found near the museum.

3 April petrel release above North Shore beach cliff. Photo courtesy of Alex Bult

Having retrieved them from the wilds of Auckland Domain the pair were allowed to rest quietly during the day and given meal of fresh terakihi before being released in the evening.

Once the fledglings successfully leave their island homes, or urban Auckland, they will spend the next five years at sea across the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean feeding at night from the surface on squid, crustaceans and fish.

Bird Rescue North Shore releases an average of 15 Cook’s petrels each year that have lost their way into Auckland suburbs. If you happen to find a live petrel you can contact Bird Rescue North Shore, your local Department of Conservation office or me at Auckland Museum for instructions on what to do. It isn’t necessary to take a bird into Bird Rescue unless you believe that it is injured.

9 April petrel in Natural Sciences department of Auckland Museum before being released later that night

For more information on the Cook’s petrel and to find out why they are currently listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species check out http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/106003888/0

Auckland Museum’s Associate Curator Applied Arts & Design, Finn McCahon-Jones and fabric artist Susan Holmes met recently to discuss her garments on display at the Museum during the Off The Wall: WearableArt Up Close exhibition. Holmes is an award-winning fabric artist, whose work has featured on the runway of World of Wearable Art (WOW), and in major television series. From potato-cut designs, to complex, hand-painted costumes, Holmes has nudged fashion into some wild places.  Holmes told McCahon-Jones that Night Moth was her transition from fashion to art – “I fell in love with it while making it”. While assembling this stunning garment, McCahon-Jones came to fully appreciate the art form.

The love and attention to detail is clearly evident in this garment. Assembling it for display in the gallery was a real treat. Even through my gloves I could feel the delicate, cool silk and its straight cut allowed it to easily slipped over the mannequin to be adjusted. The vertical crinkled silk hugged the form and gathered itself perfectly at the floor. This is a really lovely dress that would make a perfect evening dress alone.

Night Moth Susan Holmes 1990. Hand dyed and crinkle silk with stenciled and appliquéd decoration.

I had the image of the model running through the forest in the dress and its name, Night Moth. It was when the jacket sat on top of the dress that it all came together. The jacket is heavier than it looks, adorned with layers of flowing layers of silk, which contrast and compliments the colours on the dress, and form the wings. Each layer has been decorated using a different technique – dip-dying, painting, and stencilling; on the train small perforations have been cut into the fabric and accentuated in gold.

Susan Holmes began working full time with textiles in 1971; hand printing designs onto dresses in the garage out the back of her house.  Holmes told Textile Fibre Forum magazine in 1988, that she experimented with block printing using potato-cuts, and dipping fabrics into progressively diluted dye baths to create her subtle colour blends that would become her signature. She was loathed to cut into the printing – and that was the beginning of her distinctive process of printing and colouring after cutting out. In the book 100 New Zealand Craft Artists, Helen Schamroth said Holmes used the dyes like watercolours, and “she tunes her lively colours by eye rather than formula”.

Magic Feather Dress Susan Holmes 1995.

“I always start with the fabric; I feel it and look at it and drape it about to see how it behaves. Quite a lot depends on how much fabric I’ve got. Then I let it fall into various shapes and gradually settle on a style that will fit. All this time various colours and designs will be suggesting themselves. Then I cut a pattern, paint or print it, and the girls sew it up. I might never repeat the design, or I might use the same style but with different colours and painting. I like playing with the current fashion colours and they’re always a nice fresh start to each season, but I soon find that I add my own twist to them to make them distinctively my own”

With a master’s degree in Home Sciences, dying textiles and experimenting with chemicals comes naturally to Holmes. “Chemistry didn’t scare me. I was not afraid of experimentation.”

Holmes likes working to a brief, but her process is instinctive and dictated by the materials that come to hand. This holistic approach to design and construction help give her completed garments an edge. “They are very organic and expressive of [the] feeling of the materials”.

As the World of Wearable Arts shows become more extravagant, Holmes has to consider how her garment will be lit, what it will look like as the model pauses and turns on the stage. “If you are creating garments as wearable art you have to make it wearable – and also make it look good as a display”.

A selection of Holmes’ garments is now on display in the Encounter gallery and in the Off the Wall, The World of Wearable Art exhibition at Auckland Museum.

Susan Holmes, Textile Artist: awards and commissions:

1941 Born Auckland.

1961 Masters degree in Home Sciences, Otago (MHSc), Trip to England OE

1971 Began full time work with fabric

1972 Selling at Brown’s Mill markets (sold 1000’s of garments)

1978 Benson & Hedges Winner Best Garment, Fashion & Fantasy section

1988 Winner: Evening section of the Mohair Awards, New Zealand

1991 Runner Up for ‘The Great New Zealand Cloak’ Competition (for ‘Wild Places Cloak’) organised by Pamela Elliott of Compendium Gallery, Auckland.

1993 Winner Silk Section: New Zealand Wearable Art Awards. Runner up to Supreme Award.

1994 Winner Wool Section 1994 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards

1994 Highly Commended in Pacific Paradise Section, 1994 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards.

1995 Finalist in ‘Visual Symphony’ Section, 1995 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards.

1995 Highly Commended in Silk Section, New Zealand Wearable Art Awards (Magic Feather Dress)

1996 Highly Commended in Illuminated Illusion Section, 1996 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards.

1996 Supreme Winner 1996 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards. (for “Dragonfish”)

1997 Commissioned by Montana to be shown at their 25th Jubilee Celebration in Auckland in 1997. Donated by Montana to World of WearableArt™ (WOW®) Collection (‘Montana Duck’)

1998 Premier Award For Excellence:  1998 New Zealand Wool Board Handcrafts In Wool Award For Design In Fashion

1998 Winner 1998 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards, Transformation Section

1999 Highly Commended for Silk Section, 1999 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards

2001 Finalist in 2001 World of WearableArt™ (WOW®) Illumination Section.

2001 Commissioned by Montana for the World of WearableArt™ (WOW®) 2001 show.

2002 Commissioned in 2002 by World of WearableArt™ (WOW®) for the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, to wear in 2002 World of WearableArt™ (WOW®) show.

2003 Commissioned by Nelson City Council to express the city’s involvement with World of WearableArt™ (WOW®)

2003 World of WearableArt™ (WOW®): Highly Commended in Creative New Zealand Artistic Excellence Awards Section

2004 World of WearableArt™ (WOW®): Winner Creative New Zealand Arts Excellence Award

2005 World of WearableArt™ (WOW®): Highly Commended in Creative New Zealand Arts Excellence Award

2005 Commissioned by Montana to express their support and involvement with World of WearableArt™ (WOW®)

2006 WOW CentrePort Shape It Section winner for ‘Fluroessence’

2006 Winner 2006 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards Shape It Section ~ ‘Spots and Stripes’

2007 Selected for 2007 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards Illumination Section

2007 Commissioned by Montana for 2007 World of Wearable Art™ (WOW®)

2008 Winner 2008 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards: Avant Garde Section

2009 Winner 2009 New Zealand Wearable Art Awards: WOW Factor Award

2010 Invited Guest Artist, New Zealand Wearable Art Awards

2011 Selected for New Zealand Wearable Art Awards for ‘GONDWANA’

2012 Selected Open Section. 2012 Brancott Estate WOW Awards Show

Note: New Zealand Wearable Art Awards became World of WearableArt (WOW) from 2001

As the archaeologist at Auckland Museum I most enjoy digging in the ground, getting my hands dirty, and the satisfaction of removing layers of soil to uncover postholes, fireplaces and stone flakes from where people hundreds of years ago decided to set up camp for a while.

When I am in the office I describe the objects in our collection and use them for research. I also receive enquiries from the public and professionals about our collections, which come from around the world as well as New Zealand.

But like most archaeologists it is the field work I like best. I even derive some perverse pleasure from the sore back and knees I experience in the first few days of an excavation when I discover muscles I haven’t used for a while.

These muscles will be in use again this week when we head off for the next stage in a joint archaeology project with the University of Auckland on Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island), off the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.

The view from my ‘office’ for the next few weeks.

This is a long term research project looking at the history of occupation on the island. We are collaborating with Ngati Hei, and with the owner of the island Sir Michael Fay.

Last summer the first excavations were carried out and students from the university on the Fieldschool course learned how to excavate. We excavated a garden site and also a site in the dunes where fish, seals, dog and shellfish were cooked.

There was a regular blog written by staff and students on our activities, complete with photographs showing progress. The blog is being revived for this field season.

We are returning to the island for three weeks of excavation on a garden site in the northwest part of the island and on a settlement site in the middle of the island. It will be challenging, rewarding, and most of the time it will be good, although when it is wet, very windy, or very hot, my office in Auckland Museum will be more appealing.

However, all the trying days will be forgotten when we have excavated a big area of a site and uncovered the postholes which show the outline of a house (hopefully houses), where the fireplace was inside the house, where the cooking area was, and where the people who lived there dug their pits to store the kumara tubers or where they dropped the stone flakes they used as tools. This is uncovering the past.

Hearth stones of a fireplace inside a house.

Join us as we make our discoveries by following the Great Mercury excavation blog. Become an armchair archaeologist and ask questions about the excavations through the blog, all without having to get your hands dirty.

There is something profoundly sad about the rail ticket I recently discovered in Auckland Museum’s collection of ephemera. Many of us like to keep tickets to remind us of significant or memorable events or journeys. However, this ticket is unused and the reason it has found its way into our collections is more poignant than most.

Sunday 10 February 2013 marks 100 years since the world first heard about the deaths of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and the men in his polar party, Henry Robertson Bowers, Edgar Evans, Lawrence Edward Grace Oates, and Edward Adrian Wilson.

Captain Scott and his party left Lyttelton for Antarctica on 29 November 1910 aboard the Terra Nova, a former whaling ship which also gave its name to Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition. Apart from attempting to become the first men to reach the South Pole, they aimed to carry out a large amount of scientific work.

Based on Scott’s, and also Shackleton’s, earlier Antarctic experiences the Terra Nova Expedition was always planned to be a multi-season venture. Scientific bases would be established and depots would be laid during the first season with the actual polar journey not beginning until the following spring (late1911).

After staying for most of the Antarctic summer, the Terra Nova sailed for New Zealand in February 1911. It would not return until the beginning of February 1912. This was to resupply the bases, but judging by the dates on the rail ticket, it was also to bring back the men to New Zealand if the conquest of the South Pole was successful.

However, as we now know things did not go to plan. I won’t repeat the details of what happened as Wikipedia or the excellent Antarctic Heritage Trust website, amongst others, do a terrific job. It is enough to say that Scott, and many of the other expedition members were not on the Terra Nova when it again sailed for New Zealand.

The ticket I found was pinned together with a number of others. Some were first class tickets and some were second class. They were between 2 folded blue pages, one headed ‘Captain, Officers & Scientific Staff of R.S.Y. “Terra Nova”, the other ‘Crew of R.S.Y. “Terra Nova”. The first page contains the list of those to whom first class rail passes had been issued; the other page lists those who were consigned to second class travel.

Those members of the Terra Nova Expedition who returned in early 1912 have a tick against their names; those who did not, have been crossed off. And as we now know the latter were those who died – Scott, Oates, Wilson, Bowers and Evans – as well as those who were trapped for a further winter.

The tickets came to Auckland Museum as part of the scrap book of Sir Joseph James Kinsey, donated by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1962. Born in 1852 in Kent, England, Sir Joseph was educated at the Royal Naval School, Greenwich. After nine years as Master at Dulwich College, he emigrated to New Zealand where, apart from becoming Consul for Belgium in Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough and Westland, he established the shipping firm Kinsey, Barns & Co and gained a knighthood in 1919.

Sir Joseph had a great interest in Antarctic exploration and his firm became the New Zealand headquarters for expeditions to that continent – especially the 1901-1904 Discovery expedition and 1910-1913 Terra Nova expedition of Captain Scott and the 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

It was presumably Kinsey, or more likely, an underling from his firm, who arranged the rail tickets in expectation of the return of the Terra Nova after its second voyage to the ice.

On December 14, 1912 the Terra Nova went back to the Antarctic and great secrecy surrounded her third and final return from the ice. She was not expected until sometime in March 1913, and when she arrived off Oamaru on 10 February she was at first mistaken for another vessel. She would not identify herself and nor would the two men who rowed ashore, and who later travelled by rail to Lyttelton. Speculation was rife that it was “supposed to be Captain Scott and one of his officers”.

However, they were Dr Edward Atkinson and Lieutenant Harry Pennell who were sworn to secrecy until the news of the tragedy had first been telegraphed to Joseph Kinsey and thence to London.

The rail tickets and Kinsey’s scrapbook are held in the manuscript collection in Auckland Museum’s library. As well as photographs of the 1910-1912 British Antarctic Expedition given to Kinsey there are other memorabilia such as sponsors’ letters. Please contact the librarian if you would like more information.

You may also like to read about:

Oamaru and the organised events that will commemorate the arrival there of the Terra Nova 100 years ago.

The story  of the Terra Nova’s arrival at Oamaru

The first report in column 7 on p.7 of The Press of 11 February, 1913, still speculating on the return of Captain Scott.

One of the first reports, after the news of Scott’s death was out, in the evening broadsheet Auckland Star of 11 February, 1913.

Excavations on the Stingray Ridge

At the end of November 2012 a small group of archaeologists spent a week on Great Mercury Island. The intention was to carry out small excavations on the two sites selected for excavation by the Fieldschool in February 2013, to learn about the stratigraphy (layers) and whether any features were present.

The excavated drain

The ridge overlooking the tombolo in the centre of the island, named Stingray Ridge, had stone flakes and fire cracked rocks (resulting from being heated in cooking fires) eroding down the south facing slope. The ridge surface had a gentle slope to the west and south which would have been quite suitable for living on, and had the benefit of a good view over the tombolo and sea approaches on east and west sides of the island. Six 1 x 1 m squares were excavated and stone flakes, fire cracked rocks, several postholes and a drain were uncovered. There were two separate occupations present. Where drains similar to this have been found on other sites they usually are associated with channeling water away from semi-subterranean storage pits where kumara tubers were stored. The site looks very promising for excavating a large area over the summer.

Stone-faced terrace on the slope at Tamawhera, with stone-enclosed hearth

Meanwhile the other team were at Tamawhera, the large garden site in the northwest part on the island. Naturally occurring stone boulders had been shifted to form stone rows dividing the north-facing slope of the valley into long strips. There were also narrow terraces on the upper part of the slope, and on the ridge top single alignments of stone and broad terraces with stone-faced front scarps. Narrow trenches were excavated across several of these ridgetop terraces, and across two terraces on the slope. The ridge top terraces had no stone flakes but there was very deep topsoil. We think that the soil had been gardened and that the stones on the front edge of the terraces acted as a retaining wall, allowing more soil to be built up within the gardens.

Stone-enclosed hearth on the second slope terrace

The narrow terraces produced different evidence. We don’t know what we will find under the grass surface and sometimes archaeologists are lucky and place the test trench in the best possible place to interpret the terrace. In this case on each terrace a stone enclosed hearth was found, and stone flakes. Stone enclosed hearths, usually found within houses, are rare on the Coromandel Peninsula, and very few well-defined houses have been excavated in this region. We look forward to uncovering the entire surface of both terraces in summer to learn about the size of the houses and how sturdy they were.

The conditions at the two locations in late November were very different. The archaeologists on Stingray Ridge, which is very exposed, were well dressed in multiple layers of clothing to stay warm in the cool westerly winds. The lucky people at Tamawhera, protected from the wind, were too hot!! It’s difficult to please everyone all the time.

- Louise

If your holidays are taking you to Northland, the Coromandel or the East Cape you could come face-to-face with large, carnivorous tusked weta.
Unlike their primarily vegetarian weta kin, the tusked variety are carnivores – but fortunately their appetite only extends to worms and other insects so roaming North Island travellers needn’t fear being eaten.

Mercury Island Tusked Weta (Motuweta isolata). Only the males have tusks.

For those staying in Auckland this summer, you can spot two of the rarest tusked weta without burrowing through leaves or fossicking in the bush. Auckland Museum’s Te Ao Turoa (our Maori Natural History Gallery) is home to two Mercury Island Tusked Weta (Motuweta isolata).
The weta are part of the museum’s “Weird & Wonderful” trails and tours, running over the next five weeks, which aim to highlight some of the less prominent treasures on display in the galleries.
Mercury Island Tusked Weta were discovered just over 30 years ago, on a tiny island in the Mercury group, gaining the title of the country’s rarest weta. Population numbers have been boosted dramatically by a Department of Conservation breeding programme which you can learn more about here and see these incredible insects in action.
The distinctive tusks on the jaw which give the weta their name are actually only found on the males and are used in fights with other males, to push, shove and ultimately try to flip their opponent.
When they’re not being used for violence, the tusks can be turned toward a bit of vocal posturing. A series of ridges near the tip of the tusks are rubbed together to make a shrill, rasping sound.

There are very few reference specimens of the Tusked Weta. These two can be seen in Te Ao Turoa (our Maori Natural History Gallery).

This pair was bred in captivity and their offspring were liberated on another Mercury Island to help ensure the species’ survival. Due to the tusked weta’s rarity there are very few reference specimens in insect collections and this pair represents two of the three specimens currently on public display.

Choosing a Christmas costume is always a challenge fraught with creative considerations. But what do our imaginative outfits really convey? Inspired by our recent Christmas party I thought that it would be a valid use of my time (and yours) to explore a few fantastic and fantastical ceremonial costumes of the Museum’s Ethnological Collection.

This year the museum Christmas party took the theme ‘fairy tales, nursery rhymes and stories’: Princesses danced with piglets and tigers with mice. Some of us embodied sedate Disney characters, others more sinister figures whose memory is rooted in menacing folk-stories or gory social histories. My Christmas outfit was a faux fur, all-in-one (rather large) number; completed by tail, mane and paws.

The ceremonial costumes of the Museum’s Ethnological Collection are variously mischievous, playful, terrifying and solemn. There are so many to show you, but this small selection will provide a view into other cultures and other times..

Barkcloth mask, poncho and pants from Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Circa 1899

This striking costume is from Rarotonga. It is believed to have been collected from Arorangi village in 1899. The bark-cloth outfit was made from a tapa cloth, which was usually sourced from the Islands’ mulberry, breadfruit or banyan plant fibres. The traditional decorative design would likely have been painted on by hand using swamp mud as a dye.

For a period, the people of Rarotonga and Mangaia would wear bark-cloth costumes for various celebratory dances. The masks of this style are sometimes called ‘pare eva’ which would associate them with mourning rituals. However they can also be referred to as ‘pare tareka’ which suggests something more in-line with dancing pageants.

It is thought that such carnivals would variably illustrate the stories of cultural, mythical and historical narratives. As such, perhaps these performances were not so very far removed from our Christmas Party theme.

Tumbuan Dancing Mask; Moine Naven, New Britain, Bismark Archipelago, New Guinea. Wood with feather decoration.

A wood dancing mask with an elaborate feather headdress; this mask would have been worn by the man who was performing as the character Tumbuan in the ceremonial Duk-Duk dance of traditional Tolai society. The man would also have worn a short, bushy cape made of leaves to complete the costume.

The Tumbuan is the feminine counterpart to a male ‘Duk-Duk’ costume. It is differentiated from the male by the full face mask with a crescent-shaped mouth and circular eyes. Although the Tumbuan mask represents the female, it would only ever have been worn by a man. Women and children were not allowed to see the Duk-Duk dance as they were forbidden to look upon the malevolent spirit of Duk-Duk.

Duk-Duk is an aggressive, spiritual figure who appears dressed in thick leaves to the waist. Around him, a secret society once formed to influence various religious and socio-political aspects of Tolai culture. On a full moon, the members of the top secret Duk-Duk society would gather together to carry out judgment and punishment on people it deemed as offenders. Penalties were harsh and were known to embrace execution. Let’s hope that that doesn’t happen at this year’s spree of office parties!

Perhaps the act of donning a costume and ‘strutting your stuff’ on the dance floor is not just simple good humour. It seems that masks and disguises are a clever tool for evoking memory, inciting camaraderie and provoking eccentric behaviour. They can be used to tell stories, honour public and personal memories and to protect you from the consequences of destructive actions.

So beware the power of your Christmas costumes my friends, and don’t do anything you’ll regret when the mask comes off!

References:

G.A. Zegwaard, ‘Jipae: festival of the mask costumes’ in Asmat art: woodcarvings of Sou (Leiden, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde and Periplus Editions, 1993)

R. Neich and M. Pendergrast, ‘Pacific Tapa’, 1997 pp.75-81.

One of our 2012 highlights was the launch of Brian Gill’s book The Owl That Fell from the Sky: stories of a museum curator. Emma McCleary of Booksellers NZ reviews this elegant book by our Curator Land Vertebrates.

The Owl That Fell from the Sky: stories of a museum curator by Brian Gill

It would be easy to underestimate this new release from Awa Press being that it’s small in stature (14cm x 14cm) with an elegant, yet unassuming cover. Yet what a mistake you would make.

I was entirely captivated by The Owl That Fell from the Sky – a journey through the stories of 15 museum objects held in collections around the country.

As author Brian Gill writes on page 23, “These stories – of which a selection from my own experiences make up this book – show how developing, curating and understanding collections can provide richness and endless fascination.”

My copy is now shamefully dog eared (I spent a lot of time flicking from the stories to the excellent appendixes) and has several corners turned over (the books is very quotable and you want to access those again).

Far from being simple stories of museum objects, these are detailed, rich tales that are captivating, contemporary (in their writing), upbeat and at times very funny.

“Like hospitals, postage stamps, fire brigades, and sliced bread, public museums were such a good idea they caught on everywhere.” (Page 7, introduction).

The Owl That Fell from the Sky is also the start of a potential adventure – I found myself immediately wanting to see the Kaikoura moa egg in real life – and thanks to some very well done referencing, the cataloguing details, including museum registration details are listed at the back of the book.

For the more earnest amongst us I can imagine this book sitting nicely in the glove compartment of the car – to be whipped out for spontaneous object viewing around New Zealand museums.

There’s also quite a lot of detail for amateurs wishing to learn more about how museums operate. I found the description of naming conventions particularly interesting – especially in relation to what is and isn’t acceptable to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

Turtle bones - Auckland Museum, LH2025 (from Waikorea Beach)

Brian Gill not only takes us through great objects, but great careers and the idiosyncrasies of life as a museum employee. For almost six years I worked in the exhibitions team at Te Papa so when reading about the career of Peter Whitehead (1930-1992) that, “[Whitehead] worked on the draft of a satirical novel about events behind the scenes in the running of the museum,” I laughed out loud.

I’m a bit old fashioned in that I think to be called an expert in your field you need to have either a) studied to the highest degree, b) given your life to your subject or c) (and most preferable) both. As a web editor it makes me INSANE to hear people talking about ‘social media experts’ so Owl by contrast was refreshing – it was filled with ‘real’ experts whose life and work was written about in the most honourable and endearing way.

[Thomas Cheeseman] “While a strong advocate of the museum’s work and a top biologist was by all accounts a quiet achiever and a gentleman.”

The stories in Owl are far bigger than the ten or so pages that each occupies and this is surely the type of book that should be read, re-read and referenced by its owners for years to come.

It’s also filled with all sorts of jolly good inside information – like how the former paging system of the Auckland Museum worked (it’s hilarious), the public service the museum playing during the war by publishing guides for airmen of what fruits and vegetables were safe to eat if shipwrecked or lost in the Pacific, and where the best place to dry elephant bones was.

By far my favourite story was about Rajah the elephant – one of the sadder stories but also one of the most gripping. There’s no detail spared about how to taxidermy an elephant (including scraping, draping and drying); “in some places his skin was five centimetres thick,” so that’s one best left for well after dinner.

Rajah, the elephant now lives in Auckland Museum's Wild Child Galler

Many of the stories in Owl include a call from the public that can either be nothing or lead to incredible discoveries, and in some cases, corrections of history.

“An unexpected telephone call or visitor, heralding what may be a rare or unusual find, adds spice to the natural history curator’s day. Amid routine interruptions there will sooner or later, and quite at random, be an event to write home about.”

The Owl That Fell from the Sky is definitely a book to write home about.

Published by Awa Press. You can buy a copy of The Owl That Fell from the Sky: stories of a museum curator from Culture Label.

Auckland Museum has recently received a new addition to the collection – an infant female orangutan.

‘Darli’ was born in June 2000 at Auckland Zoo but was accidently rolled on after her mother experienced complications from giving birth. Auckland Zoo then generously donated the infant to the Museum.

Placed into one of our freezers, Darli did eventually make an appearance (frozen) for the exhibition Secrets Revealed in 2008. Recently though, the Land Vertebrates department decided it was time that the infant orangutan came out from frozen storage and be permanently mounted for future display.

Darli frozen in time as she appeared in Auckland Museum's Secrets Revealed exhibition

A taxidermist with previous experience preparing great apes for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History was assigned the task of mounting Darli. A cast of her body was created to form the mount so it looked as real as possible.

Body casts used to create Darli’s shape. Image courtesy of Mark Walker.

In the wild, an infant orangutan is completely dependent on its mother until it reaches about two years of age. During this time the baby will be carried by her, rely on her for food and sleep in the same night nests. Young orangutan aren’t weaned until four years of age. Unfortunately, both the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan species are currently listed as endangered with an estimated population decline of over 50% during the last 60 years. This is mostly because of habitat loss to agriculture and fires.

An excellent resource for more information on the behaviour, ecology and conservation of orangutans is the Primate Info Net website.

Auckland Zoo still has Darli’s father ‘Charlie’ and half-brother ‘Madju’ amongst their group of six resident orangutans. Darli will be put on display outside the new refreshed Weird & Wonderful gallery from next week. Be sure to come and check her out as it isn’t every day you get close to an infant orangutan.

Darli can now be seen outside the new Weird & Wonderful Gallery at Auckland Museum

Auckland Museum currently has two adult orangutans on display, a male and a female – if you’re visiting the Museum over the holidays see if you can spot them.