Tuhinga 19

The 2008 edition of Tuhinga presents six articles that represent the diversity of the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa).

The first paper, on the Maori names of marine life, discusses the possibility of losing many of these names as the move towards the standardisation of Maori grows. The second article introduces a collection of WWII posters which was amassed, distributed and displayed by Wellington manufacturing businessman Cecil Herbert Andrews as part of his war effort. Terrestrial amphipods (New Zealand land hoppers) feature in the third article, with a checklist and an illustrated key to the identification of the 28 described species and species groups. There is a revision of New Zealand land snails over the last 60 years and the introduction of three new genera (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Charopidae). Researched as part of the development of the Te Papa exhibition Whales – Tohora, there is a literature review on the role of whales, dolphins and porpoises in South Pacific island cultures. It does so under the categories of deity and veneration, origins and classification, power, status and adornment, alliance and protection, enmity and threat, and capture and consumption. The final article discusses type specimens of birds, including fossils, which were deposited in the collections of Te Papa and its predecessor organisations from 1866 onwards. These are now listed for the first time.