Curious and Curioseum
The Curioseum, published by Te Papa Press,
will delight readers young and young-at-heart with twenty-two stories by top Kiwi authors
penned after spending a day in the Te Papa collections. Each writer has chosen one of the
museum’s taonga (treasures) as a starting point for their story or poem, from samurai armour
to a dinosaur toe bone. We share photographs of the taonga that inspired a selection of the
writers, courtesy of Te Papa. We also share what each writer had to say about the object
they chose. Up first, and by way of introduction, is a short Q&A with The Curioseum
editor, Adrienne Jansen.
1. You say in the introduction that with stories, ‘You start with one thing and it becomes something else’. What do you hope readers will come away with after delving into The Curioseum?
For a start, I hope they’ll find some stories that intrigue them and some that they love, and some that they argue over. But in the bigger picture, I hope they’ll go to their local museum and see not only a bunch of objects with a lot of interesting information about them, they’ll also think, now what could that be? Then they’ll come up with some crazy ideas of their own. I hope they’ll see museums as really creative and inspiring places as well as all the other things they are.
2. Has editing The Curioseum made you see Te Papa and the objects it houses differently?
I’ve always known that Te Papa houses some very weird and strange objects and I think I’ve discovered how many people are fascinated by all this kind of stuff. It’s easy when you work in a museum to get ‘absorbed’ by the factual museum work, and it’s reminded me what imaginative places they are. Not just for kids, for adults too.
3. How has putting The Curioseum together inspired you?
A lot about The Curioseum project was new. It was a new concept, the writers were very diverse, and about half of them didn’t usually write for children – and all of that made for a big editing job. But between all of us, and with Sarah Laing the illustrator, we pulled it off. I think we created a book which is curious and whimsical, and quite different. All of that is inspiring in itself. But what next? Well, there are lots of ideas…
Ant Sang’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘Samurai Takeshi’s Return': I’m a martial arts fan, so I was immediately drawn to the intricate and fearsome design of the samurai armour in Te Papa’s collection. Because samurai armour is suspended from, rather than fitted to, the wearer’s body, it gave me the idea that imposters could easily don the armour.
—
Marisa Maepu’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘The
Saurus': In Te Papa there is a dinosaur toe bone found by New Zealand amateur
palaeontologist Joan Wiffen. Joan taught herself everything about fossils, and made the most
important dinosaur discoveries in New Zealand. I tried to reflect some of Joan’s spirit -
particularly her courage, cleverness and tenacity - in my protagonist Meleseini.
—
Mandy Hager’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘The Beaded Purse’: I chose the beaded purse because it belonged to my Austrian grandmother (Oma). She, my grandfather and my father (aged seventeen) escaped from Vienna after its occupation and annexation into Nazi Germany in 1938. They arrived in New Zealand in April 1939, thanks to the help of the UK Red Cross.
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Paora Tibble’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘Kiore Whispers': I chose this story because the kiore (pacific rat) is my family kaitaki (guardian/totem). Kiore have always been with us. I wondered about telling a story from a rat’s point of view - a crew of kiore hitching a ride on an ocean-voyaging vaka to Aotearoa. I chose the kiore and the vaka in the exhibition Tangata o le Moana as my inspirational taonga.
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Joy Cowley’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘Puss, Puss, Puss': I need to write what I know. I know Te Papa museum, know cats, have lots of young friends and I like the taste of squid, though I’ve never eaten colossal squid! These things seemed to come together by themselves to create the story ‘Puss, Puss, Puss’.
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Jo Randerson’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘Things from Other Places': We went into the International History Room, and midway between the Egyptian mummy and some small Japanese statues was a seventies black briefcase. ‘What’s in there?’ I asked. When they opened it up, I was very surprised to see a piece of moon rock.
—
Frances Samuel’s poem in The Curioseum is called
‘Monster Fish': I saw this fantastic ceramic fish with his big snappy teeth - and then
I noticed the ship on his back. He pretty much said the first line of the poem out loud. So
I grabbed my pencil and started writing as fast as I could, to find out what would happen to
him.
—
Raymond Huber’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘Spineless': When I saw the box of beetles, I was suddenly ten years old again, opening dull wooden drawers in the Christchurch museum to reveal their insects hidden inside: the bizarre, the beautiful and the alarming. Beetles are a gift for the imagination - there are over 350,000 species on Earth, with their own intricate adaptations.
—
Tusiata Avia’s poem in The Curioseum is called ‘Who Am I?': I chose the Burekalou or ‘spirit house’. In our society we tend to think of spirits as scary things from horror stories or movies, but I like the idea that spirits can also be helpful and were once part of people’s lives - you could even carry a little house with you that the spirit could live in.
—
Dave Armstrong’s story in The Curioseum is called ‘Soldiers': I chose the rifle with a mirror attached because it showed how clever New Zealanders could be with ordinary objects. But it also showed that New Zealand soldiers held the lives of other soldiers (and musicians) in their hands.
—
James Brown’s poem in The Curioseum is called ‘Te Papa
Bike Makeover': The Britten bike doesn’t really interest me, but the poem’s speaker likes
it. So I encouraged him to express himself in an acrostic poem and, to the surprise of us
both, he did.
— 
Bill
Manhire’s poem in The Curioseum is called ‘Magnitude': I guess I ended up
choosing the whole of Te Papa, but you can probably work out from my poem that if I had to
choose one single thing it would be Phar Lap - ‘the big horse made of bones’.
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You can find out more about The Curioseum by visiting The Curioseum website, which features video, audio and other fun activities related to the book.
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