History / Science

Does Te Papa's new-look restructure answer its critics?

09:10 am on 13 December 2018

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Today Horatio Robley's collection of Mokomokai are held at Te Papa museum Photo: CC4.0

After months of uncertainty and disquiet in the science community Te Papa's restructure is out. 

Five roles in all have been disestablished across Te Papa, of which two are currently vacant.

The rationalized restructure follows strong criticism that had focused on proposed changes to science, with fears expressed over  Te Papa's natural history collections being compromised and the loss of expertise.

Now, under the latest changes,  science will be allowed to retain its allocation of 15 staff - but the number of high level scientific positions will be reduced.

Te Papa's Director of Strategy and Performance, and former Head of Science at Te Papa is Dr Dean Peterson.

Also joining Kathryn Ryan is Otago University taxonomy specialist Dr Nic Rawlence who works extensively with Te Papa's collections.