Heritage et AL

Mana Publications produced collections of creative writings by Tangata Moana and Tangata Whenua from 1974. It was led and founded by Marjorie Crocombe who also ran the South Pacific University’s extension centre in Suva, Fiji. As a branch of the South Pacific Creative Arts Society, Mana was set up to support and publish South Pacific writers in a time when the Pacific was being too often misrepresented by writers with a colonial or European lens. It was time to nurture and prioritise Moana voices. From here, Mana grew into the publishing strong arm of the South Pacific.  The language and literature journal Mana Review: a South Pacific journal of Language and Literature soon followed in 1976 as a supplement to the collections. Mana Review’s first editor, Subramani, said the journal was intended as a platform to discuss Moana literature and criticisms and review in a backdrop of colonisation of which writers were drawing. The following year, Mana Review’s kaupapa shifted slightly to...

Recently at Auckland Central Library Research Centre, we’ve been celebrating contemporary wāhine Māori writers of innovative fiction - creative fiction which shapeshifts in form and genre with the power and flow of atua wāhine. We want our Indigenous collections to be embraced in a space dedicated to and curated by the author. We began with Talia Marshall’s pukapuka Whaea Blue. This time we’re showcasing the magical and healing hit of auto composite fiction, Kōhine, by Colleen Maria Lenihan. Similar to Whaea Blue, Kōhine defies genre, time and space and takes you on an enlightened yet haunting journey into the spiritual realm and back, through narrative twists and turns of memoir, poetry, and interconnected short fiction.  The following kaupapa is an interview with Colleen on Kōhine :  Rin Smeaton: Kia ora to you Colleen. Our mutual hoa Talia suggested that I talk to you! First of all, I wanted you to know that my co-worker Ash read Kōhine when it first got published and cou...

It is a unique opportunity to be able to explore and have access to the complete output of a composer’s life work. Being able to see the creative working and reworkings of their manuscript from initial inspiration through to the finished work provides a deeper understanding of them as a musician – and you can gain an appreciation of their musical life as their influence and outreach in the community becomes evident. Not to mention discovering beautiful music! In 2023, a collection was donated to Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections of the life work of composer Margaret Wegener. While she is not a widely known composer, being British born, she has an amazing story of a life filled with music which continued to enjoy even after her move to Auckland in 2005 aged 85. Margaret Wegener was born in north-west London in 1920 and began composing as a child, continuing composition into her late 80s. After studying at Maria Grey College she qualified as a teacher, eventually holding posts as D...

The Atrium display in the Central Library Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero (6 November 2024 to 5 February 2025) features six exceptional works ranging from outsize folios to a modest volume, similar that seen in the portrait of James Tannock Mackelvie painted at his home in Hyeres, France in 1884, a year before his death. Image: James Tannock Mackelvie by George Halkett, 1884. Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Mackelvie Collection M1885/1/32. Following a 2024 stocktake and Heritage Cataloguer Ian Snowdon’s cataloguing enhancements for the Mackelvie Collection, there are new opportunities to showcase aspects of the extraordinary Victorian library the philanthropist and collector James Mackelvie built for us. See it here. The recent talk ‘Ex Libris JT Mackelvie’ was an opportunity to showcase books from the Mackelvie Collection. The visually arresting pattern books are a good way to sample the collection. In the mid-19th century colour lithography was being developed and there was a growing an awar...

Image: Haircutting ceremony, Otara, 1971. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Footprints 08563. Reminisce and celebrate our beautiful Niue! Niue celebrates its 50th anniversary of self-governing, highlighting its relationship with Aotearoa. The island is commonly referred to as 'The Rock of Polynesia.' Through historical imagery, we explore Niue’s timeless stories, memories and identity which ground our Niuean communities here in Aotearoa and abroad. Ngā Pātaka Korero o Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland Libraries house nearly 25,000 materials related to Niue. Over 400 of those materials are of heritage significance, many of which are featured in our online, lending and research catalogues. Within our collections, Niue materials are embedded across various formats and categories. On our Kura Heritage Collections Online , Niuean-themed materials can be found amongst our photographs, maps, ephemera, journals, and manuscripts (to name a few). Additionally, our library catalogue includ...

Image:  'Walk under ladders’ Joan Armatrading on tour music poster, 1982-1983. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Eph-Post00485.   On Friday 26 July 2024, I gave a talk to my colleagues at the Central City Library called 'Ephemera A-Z: an introduction'. I am relatively new to the Associate Curator Ephemera role and the staff talk was a way for me to explore parts of the collection I had not looked at before. This blog post is a version of my curator talk.  There were a few things I wanted to share in my talk. One was to show staff how ephemera is arranged, described, shelved and accessed. I also wanted to show some samples of ephemera which have been digitised and are accessible on Kura Heritage Collections Online . Most of the images of ephemera in my talk (and in this blog post) were carefully scanned or photographed by me for the purpose of the talk. So, those images are not available as digitised items on Kura. The talk was a chance for me to explore parts of th...