This exhibition explores the culture and history of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here, you’ll find exhibits ranging from customary vaka (canoes) to contemporary jewellery and modern music.

Pacific peoples were the first to arrive in Aotearoa, almost 1,000 years ago. Using celestial navigation and sophisticated vaka, the ancestors of Māori sailed thousands of kilometres from the eastern Pacific. Watch a projection showing what the epic journey might have been like for those voyagers.

See Tauhunu, a rare vaka from the Cook Islands that is over 100 years old.

Discover the little-known stories of Pacific people who came here in the 1800s, a time when New Zealand’s leaders dreamed of creating their own empire in the Pacific. Learn about the Pacific soldiers who fought and died for New Zealand in the two world wars.

Hear Pacific migrants from the 1960s and 1970s talk about their experiences moving to New Zealand to work. Explore a digital screen of highs and lows, from police raids targeting Pacific people in the 1970s to the appointment of the first Pacific captain of the All Blacks rugby team. 

Today, Pacific peoples contribute to all parts of society in Aotearoa, from politics and law to art and music – binding this group of islands in the Pacific closer to its other island neighbours.