Voyage to the world’s largest ocean and hear tales of exploration and exploitation. Learn about encounters between Europeans and the Te-Moananui-a-Kiwa (people of the Pacific Ocean), and the legacies still felt today.

Inside the gallery

The Pacific is the world’s biggest ocean, and people have lived there for thousands of years. Learn more about British voyages to the Pacific by men such as Captain Cook that changed the world forever, and the legacies and traditions of the people living there today.

Behold the drua, a Fijian open ocean canoe, and explore Pacific histories of boat-building, navigation and performance.

Discover artistic representations of the Pacific islands and their occupants by artists such as William Hodges and George Stubbs.

See examples of the exploitation of Pacific land and resources through relics from the infamous story of the mutiny of the Bounty.

Read accounts from missionaries who introduced, and in some cases imposed Christianity on the islanders, whose practices and beliefs they tried to outlaw.

William Hodges accompanied Captain Cook on his voyages to the Pacific. He turned his sketches into rich canvases which defined how Europe saw the region. See how Hodges' largest surviving painting, 'The War-Boats of Tahiti', was prepared for display at the Museum.