Heritage et AL

Keri Hulme’s poetry has inspired two exquisite handmade artists’ books – The Visionary , and The Silences Between (Moeraki Conversations) , on display in the Angela Morton Room’s STARGAZER exhibition. A community of artisans and artists combined to produce these ātaahua responses to Keri’s poetry, and this exhibition shares materials and stories about how these pukapuka were created.  Artist and printmaker Beth Serjeant was involved with both artists’ books. The first was her own, The Visionary (1987), which included Keri’s poem Stargazer, along with 10 lithographs Beth created to illustrate ten poems about the future. Beth later helped facilitate the artists’ book edition of Keri’s poetry collection The Silences Between (Moeraki Conversations) (2016). The Visionary was sparked by a young man Beth knew who was frightened about the future, and always looking for a mushroom cloud on the horizon. She wanted to make something that shared a positive belief in the future, and decided to p

The three decades following the conclusion of the Second World War saw a significant rise in migration to Aotearoa New Zealand. Pacific Islanders in particular were attracted to New Zealand through a scheme that aimed to address the labour shortages in process work and manufacturing. These low-skill, low-wage jobs were plentiful in the 1960s and 1970s, which resulted in an influx of immigrants to New Zealand, predominantly from the Pacific Islands, in order to fill these gaps in the workforce. This growth in the Polynesian population of New Zealand is represented by the fact that in 1966 there were just over 26,000 Pacific people in the country, and only ten years later the population was close to 66,000. Cook Islanders, Niueans and Tokelauans took advantage of their New Zealand citizenship by enjoying free access into the country, whilst Samoans and Tongans were specifically in demand as workers. The majority of the job openings that Pacific immigrants took were located in Auckland, s

Image: An opening from one of John A Lee's scrapbooks, 1917-1950. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, NZMS 828. John A. Lee was a mercurial star in New Zealand’s political firmament between the World Wars, rising to become a prominent member of the First Labour Government. He made enemies easily. His campaign to hold Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage to the manifesto commitments of 1935 culminated in 1939, with an anonymous pamphlet known as ‘The Lee Letter’ and an article in the left-wing journal Tomorrow entitled ‘Psycho-Pathology in Politics’, after which Peter Fraser and other loyalists accused Lee of hounding Savage to his death. Lee had already established himself as an author of autobiographical fiction (including the New Zealand classic Children of the Poor ), but he claimed that his words against Savage were no fiction. He hit back by pouring scorn on the ‘union gangsters’ who had conspired against him for ‘telling the truth’. For John, also known as Jack, it was

In 1893, women in New Zealand won the right to vote in parliamentary elections. During this time, the social, political, and economic environment for women was undergoing a period of great change. The end of the nineteenth-century saw women begin to attend university in greater numbers and enter the workforce more fully. Women were holding positions as domestic servants, factory labourers and teachers, while some were beginning to forge their way into roles in the legal and medical fields. The passing of the Married Women’s Property Act in 1884 gave women the same financial rights as their husbands, finally giving married women the power to own their own property. However, change was slow to come, and women continued to carry the burden of social and political inequality well beyond 1893. Despite being awarded the vote, women remained barred from standing for Parliament. A woman’s place was still firmly grounded in the home, with women expected to be dutiful mothers, wives, and homemak

What does the term ‘Tāmaki Makaurau’ mean? Some would argue that it means ‘Tāmaki of a hundred lovers’, while others would claim it means ‘Tāmaki desired by many’ or ‘Tāmaki the bride sought by a hundred’(1). No matter which meaning you prefer, they all clearly suggest that Tāmaki has long been a place sought after by many rōpū (groups). Over the course of its more recent history, Tāmaki has become the seat of multiculturalism in these motu. At different points roughly over the last two centuries Pākehā, diverse Asian peoples, tangata o te Moana Nui a Kiwa and diasporic Māori have come to call Tāmaki home.  Centuries before this multi-ethnic rōpū found residence in Tāmaki, several ancestral tangata whenua groups sought sustenance and security here. These rōpū recognised the special position of Tāmaki, situated on a fertile volcanic field and lined with awa allowing for easy access to multiple moana. Over time through exercising their mana, these groups would become the mana whenua of T