Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Treasure Islands

Arts and Cultural Exchange

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Parramatta

2023

Stories

Treasure Islands

Arts and Cultural Exchange

Hosted by Lalau Leo Tanoi

Four women and a man sitting in a semi-circle formation. One woman is sitting on the ground and the rest of the group are sitting on large boxes. They women are wearing traditional Tongan dress. The man is wearing traditional Samoan dress. They are holding a variety of objects.

Stories

Treasure Islands

A partnership with Powerhouse and Arts and Cultural Exchange, Treasure Islands follows Leo Tanoi and members of Sydney’s Pasifika community as they share the stories of cultural belongings from Sāmoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Fiji and Kiribati held in the Powerhouse Collection.

A u-shaped neck collar formed from five layers (one above the other) of cowrie shells tightly bound on clear nylon cord. — Shell collar (necklace) from Kiribati
Object No. 2009/73/4

‘If you don't know your past you will never know where you're going in the future.’

Rota Williams

‘The Sāmoan word for white man, or European, is papalagi. In a lot of maritime records we see the people describing the Polynesian boats as very small with the mast very low and very quick, and that their boats used to circle around the big European boats. So, when the Sāmoans first saw the European boats come bursting out and into our world, the kids went, ‘Papalagi, papalagi’ – the mast that went to the top of the sky.