What is the role and relevance of museums in the 21st century? Can they be living, expansive archives of Indigenous knowledge? Or should we acknowledge them as outdated relics of colonial pasts?
Join curator Dr Maia Nuku for ‘Weaving histories into futures: art, people, place’ as she shares insights into the redevelopment of the new Arts of Oceania galleries at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The Met’s new Oceania galleries
The 10-year project culminated in a suite of galleries that offer international visitors new perspectives on art reaching deep into Oceania’s past, while recognising how it continues to shape the present.
Maia will discuss the opportunity to reframe the galleries conceptually, emphasising connections across global and local histories and elevating storytelling, oratory and performance alongside Oceania’s dynamic visual arts.
Australian Museum: Monday 16 November 2026
National Museum Australia : Thursday 19 November 2026
Melbourne Museum : Tuesday 24 November 2026
Meet our guest speaker
Dr Maia Nuku was born in London and is of English and Māori (Ngai Tai) descent. She is Curator for the Arts of Oceania at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and oversaw the major reinstallation of the Oceania galleries, which reopened in 2025.
Maia’s doctoral research looked at early missionary collections of Polynesian gods and the cosmological aspects of Oceanic art. Her exhibition The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania travelled to Shanghai and Qatar in 2023.
Delivered in collaboration with the Council of Australasian Museum Directors (CAMD).
This event is presented as part of the Pasifika Tauhi project, the Australian Museum’s museum-to-museum initiative to strengthen cultural and people-to-people ties across Australia, the United States and Pacific Island Nations, supported by the U.S. Department of State.
