Please do not touch is a 53 minute investigation of one bird’s epic journey from Samoa to the UK in 1843, and its place in the world today. 

This is a story about a species on the edge of extinction, who holds knowledge, and the unattainable certainty of the original. It’s told through my research into historical archives, a zoom call with an intrepid bird conservationist in Samoa, and personal stories.

From the island of Savai’i we hear from Moeumu Uili and her eternal search for the manumea, Samoa’s national bird, whilst in the UK I trace the journey of a museum specimen captured in Samoa in 1843 as “a very rare bird” and transported to Edinburgh to join a wealthy lady’s natural history collection.

What starts out as a curious tale evolves into something much more universal about human nature and our impact on Earth.

Please do not touch is a live storyshow, performed by me, Sarah Gillett, with audio and imagery.

On this page there are two versions for you to enjoy: a video artwork, and a podcast. 

Please do not touch was researched, written, recorded and produced by Sarah Gillett. It was commissioned by the Übersee-Museum Bremen, Germany, as part of NEO Collections, a project bringing together artists, scientists, curators and technologists to create new meaningful stories from online museum collections.

The development of Please do not touch would not have been possible without the expertise and time of Moeumu Uili, Samoa Conservation Society, Martin Stervander, Senior Curator of Birds, National Museums Scotland, Etta Grotrian and her colleagues from the Übersee-Museum and National University of Samoa, and Sohaila Abdulali, where the bird conversations began.

You can watch, read and listen to stories by poets, artists, journalists and scientists about the Pacific Islands on The Blue Continent website at blue-continent.de/.

If you enjoyed Please do not touch then follow the Übersee-Museum on Instagram @ueberseemuseum and me @inkystudio for new work and updates. And if you want to support efforts to save the manumea from extinction, then please please get in touch with the Samoa Conservation Society via their facebook page @conservesamoa or their website samoaconservationsociety.wordpress.com. I know Moe will be very grateful.

© Sarah Gillett 2025