A striking new regional museum is set to open next year in Southland, New Zealand’s southernmost province, which includes the southwestern portion of the South Island and Stewart Island.
Te Unua Museum of Southland will tell Southland’s stories through immersive exhibitions and shared experiences.
At MEETINGS 2026 in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland yesterday, Te Unua Director Eloise Wallace said the museum building is about four months from completion. The museum tells the story of Southland and has local Māori involvement.
Eloise Wallace
Wallace has worked in the museum and heritage sector for more than two decades, including at the renowned Imperial War Museum London and as Director of Tairāwhiti Museum & Art Gallery. She also serves on the board of Museums Aotearoa and is a trustee of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Wallace says the new regional Te Unua Museum of Southland, set to open in Invercargill next year, “will champion the people, places, and taoka [treasured possessions] that shape us”.
Te Unua Museum of Southland will bring together immersive storytelling, cutting-edge exhibition design and an authentic cultural partnership to create an experience unlike anything that has come before it in Murihiku [the Māori name for Southland].
The museum will invite visitors to move beyond understanding the region to knowing its living, evolving narrative: stories explored with richness and depth, from the ingenuity and resilience of its people, to the forces of land and sea that have shaped Southland’s people, and the taoka that carry memory and identity across generations.
At its core, Te Unua Museum of Southland will celebrate a strong partnership with mana whenua [the people of the land], ensuring its stories are grounded in tikanga [societal lore] and create a cultural experience that is both uniquely Southland and universally compelling.
Te Rua Wellington – Exterior
With a footprint of 1408 square matres of exhibition space for both permanent and temporary displays, retail space, an on-site café that shares Southland’s abundant food story with the world, an elevated outdoor mezzanine, children’s play spaces, and a stunning central foyer dominated by an overhead double-hulled waka and a vista of the award-winning crown jewel of the city Queens Park, Te Unua Museum of Southland offers both a rich visitor proposition and flexible opportunities for events and incentives.
By: Peter Needham at MEETINGS 2026 in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Read Time: 3 Minutes.
About the Author.
With more than 35 years in travel journalism, Peter Needham has filed stories from Fleet Street to Fiji, and just about everywhere in between. As Managing Editor (Australasia) for Global Travel Media, he shapes industry coverage with the steady hand of someone who’s seen fashions come and go and knows what lasts.
Since going freelance in 1993, his byline has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, Reader’s Digest, and Qantas’ in-flight magazines. He edited Inside Tourism for seven years, wrote the long-running Travel Tales column for Vacations & Travel, and even crafted copy for Tourism Australia ahead of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
A Reuters, Guardian and AAP veteran, Peter has travelled widely from South American backpacking trails to a Saudi military hospital, gathering stories the old-fashioned way: by being there.
