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Niue Language Week

Fakalofa lahi atu!

Sunday 18 October – Saturday 24 October 2026 is Faahi Tapu he Vagahau Niue, Niue Language Week.

Header image: Hat made by Molie Eva Huka; AWMM 2019.31.11, 837.

Fakalofa lahi atu kia mutolu oti. Fakaue fakamua ke he Atua kua feleveia pehe nei ke folafola atu e tau manatu ke he Vagahau mahuiga mo e tokiofa he motu ha tautolu ne fakataoga aki e tau tagata Niue ko e leo vagahau. Ko e Faahi Tapu Vagahau Niue a nei. 

This is Niue Language Week and we proudly celebrate and treasure our language as one core indicator of our heritage. We share with you samples and snapshots of Niue materials in the form of writing, photographs, handicrafts and collection objects from the Museum.

Community drop-in

Community drop-in

TUE 20 OCT, 9.30AM, 10.30AM, 1PM, 2PM, 3PM, 4PM
FREE, BOOKINGS REQUIRED

Come admire a selection of Niuean textile and fibre treasures from our collection at our special Niuean community drop-in on Tuesday 20 October. Interact with these cherished taonga and learn more about Niuean material culture during these intimate sessions. Sessions are limited to 10 people and must be booked in advance.

Kato fiofio. Decorative basket. Collection of Auckland War Memorial  Museum 1966.207

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FREE PERFORMANCE

SAT 25 OCT, 10.30AM
TE AO MĀRAMA SOUTH ATRIUM
FREE, NO BOOKINGS REQUIRED

Come and join us as we welcome Tau Malolo ha Niue, an inspiring Niuean youth group, named after a specific kind of fishing net commonly used in Niue. Tau Malolo ha Niue will be celebrating Vagahau Niue, Niuean language week through the sharing of language, music, song and dance from Niue.

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The Niuean Editors of Mana
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The Niuean Editors of Mana

In celebration of 2025 Niuean language week, we profile the Niuean writer Aiao Kaulima and Associate Editor Tigilau Ness and their literary contribution to the first multilingual Pacific Tāmaki Makaurau newspaper, Mana. Written in eight languages, the newspaper was a meeting place for many communities engaged in social justice and Māori and Pacific story sovereignty.

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Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Learn how to care for your hiapo at home. Click here to view this information in another language. 

Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Tokanga'i 'o e tapa'i ngatu

Ko e tau levekiaga fakataitai nai moua mai he kaina fakamotu mo e tau manako ke puipui e hiapo ke he loga e tau tau. Fakakite mai e lautolu e tau kakano ka malona e hiapo haau mo e falu a puhala ke muitua ki ai ke nakai malona pihia e haipo haau. Putoia ai foki e tau puhala ne mitaki ke toka po ke fakatātā ke he haau a kaina ke ua malona e hiapo.

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Tapa by Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss

Levekiaga ke he tau koloa magafoa mo e tagata

If you would prefer to access this information in another language, click here to see the other options. 

Ko e tau koloa tokiofa he tau magafaoa ko e mena mahuiga lahi ke iloa ko hai a tautolu mo e omai i fe a tautolu. Ko e tau koloa nai tuga ia e tau ata, tau pepa ata, tau tohi mo e tau laupepa mahuiga ke he magafaoa.

To leva e toka he tau koloa nai ka mitaki e tau levekiaga mo e tau fakaaogaaga ki ai. Hanai falu a tau puhala ke lagomatai ia mutolu ke leveki mo e puipui e tau koloa mahuiga nai.

 

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Ku a liu onoono atu ke he tau koloa tokiofa mo e takitaki fakamua he PIERC ko Le Mamea Taulapapa Sefulu Ioane he matakavi 1970.

Seeing the connections with a Hiapo lens
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Seeing the connections with a Hiapo lens

Growing collections that connect with the communities of Tāmaki Makaurau is important gahua (work) here at the Museum. Adding items that can provide connection and inspiration relating to akau magafoa (genealogy), vagahau Niue (language) or koloa (cultural objects) is part of an ongoing conversation with community, artists and academics immersed in everything Niuean.

Blog by Paula Legel, Associate Curator Heritage Publications & Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss, Hiapo maker

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Stories of service

Explore stories from Online Cenotaph about Niuean service personnel.

Chaplain Heketaha Uea and Niue’s contribution to WWI
ONLINE CENOTAPH

Chaplain Heketaha Uea and Niue’s contribution to WWI

Chaplain Uea was age 40, the oldest of the 150 Niuean men who, keen to help ‘the Kingdom of King George’, joined the New Zealand Māori Contingent. Uea was a natural leader. He was their Sergeant Major and something of a father figure to the Niuean men. Importantly, he was one of the few who could speak English.

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Information about Chaplain Uea is on display in Pou Maumahara, Level 2. The Niuean Bible, included in the case, "Ko e Tohi Tapu: Ko e Maveheaga Tuai mo e Maveheaga Fou" (1966) is kindly on loan from Taha Fasi.

Niue's service personnel

Niue's service personnel

After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the people of Niue offered a contingent to serve with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF), an offer that was taken up in mid-1915. Learn more about these servicemen and those who served in later conflicts at Online Cenotaph.  

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Early-1960s Niue by Harry Coleman

Auckland Museum holds a collection of close to 400 images of Niue in the early 1960s by New Zealander and WW2 veteran, Harry Alexander Coleman (1913-1995). View a selection of these images chosen by Leone Samu (Associate Curator, Documentary Heritage, Pacific Collections) then learn more about him via the link below.

Gallery (click to expand)

Niue in pictures

Niue in pictures

Leone Samu (Associate Curator, Documentary Heritage, Pacific Collections) takes looks at Niue through the lens of Harry Coleman, a public servant, radio operator, and founder for the government-issued bilingual Tohi Tala Niue newsletter.

Image: Coleman, Harry (1960s) Performance in festive costume. Auckland War Memorial Museum neg. M1660.9

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The wild plants of Niue

The Auckland Museum Herbarium holds over 400 plant specimens from Niue, dating back to 1877. The main collectors are: Henry A. Mair, a New Zealand sea-trader, who collected 35 ferns there in 1877; S. Percy Smith, a New Zealand civil servant and amateur ethnologist, who collected 125 mainly flowering plants in 1901; and botanist Rhys Gardner, research associate of Auckland Museum, who collected a similar number in 2005.

Gallery (click to expand)

 

Gardner published two personally-illustrated books on the flora: Trees and Shrubs of Niue (2011) and Ferns and herbs of Niue (2013); and two papers in 2021 on the flora: The naturalised flora of Niue and The native vascular plants of Niue, SW Pacific. There are no known plants endemic to Niue.

Gallery (click to expand)

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FAAHI TAPU HE VAGAHAU NIUE ARCHIVE

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Visit our archive of Niue Language Week content from previous years.

Image: Coleman, Harry (1960s) Harvesting taro. Auckland War Memorial Museum neg. M1658.1.

Visit the archive