Te Papa's senior Māori curator leaves as its chief executive steps down

Dougal Austin (Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Waitaha) has worked at Te Papa for 32 years. He Toi Whakairo: The art of Māori Carving, which has just opened at the national museum, is his last exhibition there. Newsroom's review of the show, published on 1 October, reported that Austin, Te Papa's senior curator Mātauranga Māori, is leaving for a senior position at the recently redesigned Te Unua Museum of Southland in Waihōpai Invercargill. The reviewer called the show his "swan song".

The chief executive is also going. Courtney Johnston announced in August she would resign; she leaves this month.

Published reports name no successor to either.

Johnston took the job in 2019 as the youngest chief executive in the museum's history. Before that she ran the Dowse Art Museum from 2012 to 2018. As chief executive, she brought in a $35 entry fee for international visitors in 2024.

The show opens 40 years after the touring exhibition Te Māori, which Te Papa credits with leading to its own creation. It presents 140 taonga, chosen from the 30,000 in the collection, and covers 700 years of carving. Austin and the curatorial team worked on it for a decade. They began by commissioning new work from carvers including Rangi Kipa, Lyonel Grant and Riki Manuel CNZM. Serious planning began three years ago.

Newsroom's critic called it "an assertion of curatorial leadership many have been longing to see at Te Papa in recent years".

The exhibition also includes work by living carvers, among them Stacy Gordine and Ngaroma Riley as well as Grant and Kipa. More wāhine Māori are now carving.

Austin credits colleagues Isaac Te Awa, Amber Aranui and Dr Jamie Metzger. He hasn't framed the show as a solo achievement.