- Date
Thursday 19 November 2026
- Time
12.30pm to 2pm
- Cost
Free, bookings essential
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 Or should we acknowledge them as outdated relics of colonial pasts?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.
Maia’s presentation will followed by a conversation with Dr Jilda Andrews, Deputy Director, First Nations at the National Museum of Australia.
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 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.
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