2 COMPETENCIAS A ADQUIRIR:

Two types of diorama were developed for Mountains to the Sea that together featured over 2500 specimens of flora and fauna. Although interactive and engaging, the specific visual practices of science that informed the ecological dioramas of the earlier museums were weakened in both approaches. These exhibits attempted to present ‘national’ landscapes rather than scientific ecologies of specific places. The first diorama presented six ‘typical’ New Zealand habitats of alpine, bush, freshwater, coastal, open-ocean and deep sea displayed in large glass-fronted cabinets. The generality of this approach revisits the

landscape displays of the International Exhibitions, which contextualized specimens against a painted panoramic landscape backdrop to create the illusion o f spatial depth and context.

64 Geoff Hicks, "Natural History in the Environmental Age," in National Museums Negotiating Histories Conference Proceedings, ed. Darryl McIntyre and Kirsten Wehner (Canberra: Published by the National Museum of Australia in association with the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research and the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, 2001). p. 185.

65 Griffin, Saines, and Wilson, "Ministry for Culture and Heritage Report of Specific Issues Relating to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa." p.20.

The second diorama, shown m Figure 53, produced an even more abstract representation of the natural world, designed as a ‘stage set’ forest that combined ‘real specimens’ with fabricated replicas of trees including beech, kauri and rata trees. The experience was

heightened by audio and lighting that contributed sound and atmosphere to the ‘forest.’ On opening day the exhibition included three costumed characters of the weta, takahe and tuatara to entertain and guide visitors. This theatrical experience displayed specimens without any specific ecological relationships to place and was subsequendy deemed by the museum’s review as being too ‘simplistic.’66

Figure 53 Stage set dioramas, Mountains to the Sea

(w w w.tepapa.govt.nz/TePapa/English/W hatsO n/LongTerm Exhibitions/)

Bush City offered a further reinterpretation of the diorama, designed as an immersive experience of a ‘living’ transect of New Zealand ecology. As shown in Figure 54, Bush City was linked to the Papatuanuku exhibits via a covered bridge that deposited visitors into a coastal rainforest. Visitors then proceeded along a raised boardwalk that passed through a series of ‘iconic’ New Zealand habitats including manuka-kanuka scrub, coastal rainforest, the open volcanic plateau of the Desert Road, and totara forests. Recreated limestone caves complete with glow worms, ‘real’ boulders, and replica greywacke walls depicted the

underlying geology of ecological habitats. Interactivity was encouraged: children were invited to become a ‘palaeontologist’ and dig for fossils in a sand pit or discover the real moa bones found in the sink holes o f the recreated limestone caves. A wetland display

66 Ibid. p.21.

completed this ecological transect, before visitors re-entered the museum on the ground floor.

Figure 54 View o f Bush City from Te Papa (Post card Museum o f N ew Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa)

O f all three dioramas, Bush City provided the most detailed ecological information. A series of interpretive panels throughout the garden offered narration of plants, geology and ecology, supplemented by a more detailed guide book available for purchase, which

includes the map shown in Figure 55. Bush City as constructed, however, does not fulfil the original intention to ‘reveal human perspectives of the land and biota.’ 6 While

interpretation material dates the landscape as a recreation of the Wellington foreshore 200 years ago, Bush City could equally be a representation of 1,000 years ago, given the minimal representation of Maori or pakeha interaction with the landscape. The dominant

representation remains one of ‘pristine’ ecosystems, replicating the unpeopled ecologies of the Mountain to the Sea dioramas.

67 G eoff Hicks, "Landscape Conceptual Plan," (Wellington: Museum o f New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 1993). p.4. 184

# •

Figure 55 Map from A Guide to Bush City (Te Papa Press, 1998. pp. 24-25.)

The only cultural perspective of the natural world presented among the Papatuanuku displays was offered by the multimedia presentation o f the same name that features a Maori creation story o f Aotearoa. Squeezed into a small corridor between Awesome Forces and Mountains to the Sea this multimedia presentation described the separation of Ranganui (Sky Father) and Papatuanuku (Earth Mother) by Tane Mahuta, the god o f the forests and birds. This act o f separation produced the world of earth and sky encompassing flora, fauna and Maori, and established an integral connection between nature and humans. The original concept plans, however, aimed to incorporate science and Maori paradigm within a common framework rather than within separate displays. 68 Initially, parallel or dual

storylines were explored for Awesome Forces, juxtaposing perspectives from Maori ‘lore’ with scientific understandings of environment. 66 Plate margin volcanism was to have

included text panels reading:

Ruaumoko was suckling the Earth Mother when she turned to face down. Hence he never emerged into the upper world or saw the light o f day. He makes war against humankind and conspires whiro to destroy them. It is by earthquakes and all volcanic phenomena that he assails us.

Subduction zone magma is intermediate andesitic material that forms the basis of the large central North Island volcanoes.70

68 Museum of New Zealand Te Marae Taonga O Aotearoa, "Summary Report of Exhibition Meetings Vol. 1 Report," in MU 476 (Wellington: Museum of New Zealand Te Marae Taonga O Aotearoa, 1989).p. 41.

69 Hicks, "Natural History in the Environmental Age." p.189. 70 Ibid. p. 189.

According to curator Geoff Hicks, front-end evaluation revealed that this approach was considered confusing, resulting in the stand-alone approach that separated Maori and western perspectives. Consequently, the Papatuanuku displays, while offering an immersive and interactive visitor experience, do not fulfil the original intellectual intentions to present a peopled environment. There is minimal representation of cultural perspectives within the ecological displays, and Maori and scientific understandings of the environment are

isolated. The Papatuanuku displays point to the influence of the museum’s ‘new’ national mandate on environmental display to shift emphasis from ecological specificity to national representativeness. The dominant representation of a pristine nature was heightened by the absence o f the planned ihonui and the environmental history exhibit People and Land from the opening day exhibition program, both o f which were originally conceived as important areas of ‘dialogue’ for exploring the New Zealand environment.