Riah King-Wall has a thing about bugs and chose one for this story.
It is a pink-winged stick insect and, according to Riah, it's "super fab". How long it has been in the Whanganui Regional Museum's collection is not known; in fact, all provenance is lost.
"It's a tropical insect, endemic to
Australia, and the cool thing about them is that there are only ever females, so they reproduce with each other and they're perfectly happy doing that," she says.
"They're not a rare insect but they're not found in New Zealand."
The one pinned to a board under a glass cover has seen better days and its colouring is not what it was.
"When they're alive the body is bright green and so are the wing coverings," says Riah, who adds it was sitting downstairs with all the other bugs before being put into another box for carrying around. The original pink would have been a lot more intense too.
So why did Riah, the museum's programme officer, choose a pink winged stick insect (Podacanthus typhon)? "I am really interested in entomology and bugs. I studied art; I did my Fine Arts Honours degree at Massey in Wellington and throughout that my interest was in advancing the histories of female entomologists who hadn't got the recognition they deserved in their time. I used portraiture to do that, but it meant I could do this really long research phase on really cool ladies who made headway in some exciting ways.
"That was an eye-opener for me into the world of bugs, so that's continued ... and when I got here - lots of bugs!" She is running a series of holiday programmes about bugs - "It's a passion project for me," says Riah who studied Museum Studies after she studied art.
"I think museums are good places to combine creative types with the output of culture," she says.
"So it's an exciting place where a lot of cool narratives go on, and that's something artists are drawn to."
Riah's role is to work on public and children's programmes outside of the education team. From school holiday programmes, to evening lecture series, to one-off events to outreach. The latter encompasses programmes in rest homes and early childhood centres, among others.
"It's a big mix of things that take elements of the museum and use them in exciting ways in a more temorary manner than exhibitions can be, and sometimes alongside exhibitions."
Riah is working toward a Masters degree in Museum and Heritage Studies while working full-time at the museum. Bugs remain an interest.
