Whakamana Cannabis Museum, Cannabis education museum in Dunedin, New Zealand
Whakamana Cannabis Museum is a museum in downtown Dunedin, New Zealand, dedicated to the history and social debate around cannabis. It displays consumption devices, products, and memorabilia gathered from places where the plant is legally available, presented alongside educational material about legislation and policy.
The museum was founded in 2013 by Abe Gray and Julian Crawford, making it the first institution of its kind in New Zealand. Their aim was to shift the public conversation about cannabis away from taboo and toward informed discussion.
The name 'Whakamana' comes from te reo Māori and means 'empowerment', a word chosen to signal that the space encourages open conversation rather than judgment. Visitors often notice how the layout invites people to stop, read, and talk rather than just walk past the displays.
The museum is housed in a historic building in central Dunedin, easy to reach on foot from most of the city's main points of interest. Allow enough time to read through the exhibition texts, as much of the content is written rather than displayed as objects alone.
The museum regularly hosts discussion groups and community events where visitors can share their own views on drug policy alongside others. This turns the space into something closer to a meeting point than a conventional exhibition room.
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