Storymaps

Explore our Storymaps, scroll through online exhibitions that combine storytelling with images and embedded content. They offer a deeper look at Waitaki people, places, and museum collections. Each Storymap is designed to be enjoyed at your own pace, whether you are dipping in for five minutes or settling in for a longer read.

These interactive stories let us share more than we can fit in the gallery, bringing hidden collection highlights, local characters, and changing everyday life into view. From behind-the-scenes objects to forgotten histories and playful memories, our Storymaps are a fresh way to experience the museum anytime and anywhere.

Cure & Care: Health care in te rohe o Waitaki

Care & Cure explores the many ways in which people in te rohe o Waitaki have sought healing and cared for one another across time. Bringing together the stories of some of our medical practitioners, hospitals, maternity homes, community health, pandemics, and early medicinal concoctions, this exhibition hopes not only to tell the history of healthcare in the district but also highlight the experiences of those impacted by it.

Care & Cure is currently on display at Waitaki Museum.

Unmentionables: Uncovering our Undergarments.

Unmentionables: Uncovering our Undergarments is all about making the personal public and the public, well, personal. The often-quoted statistic that only 95 percent of a museum’s collection is ever on display serves as an apt metaphor for this exhibition, as we aim to bring our extensive yet rarely seen vintage undergarment collection out of the closet, so to speak.

Unmentionables ran at Waitaki Museum 01 July to the 23 November 2025

Elizabeth: The Forgotten Forrester

The legacy of a once celebrated woman has slipped through the cracks of Waitaki history. Read our storymap to find out about Elizabeth and why she was once described as "without a doubt the most outstanding woman personality in the history of Oamaru"

Kids’ Stuff

This online exhibition explores how children’s games, toys and pastimes have evolved (or in some cases hardly changed at all) over decades and even centuries. Bullrush may have been banned but catch and chase games have never lost their appeal. Dolls may have evolved, but they remain beloved by their owners.

Kids’ Stuff is on at the Waitaki Museum 2 December 2025 until 29 March 2026