Heritage et AL

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Polyfest, celebrating five incredible decades of diverse communities sharing their cultures through dance, singing, and oratory. With Tāmaki Makaurau as the home to a vibrant Pasifika community, it remains the perfect location to host this annual festival. From its humble beginnings with four schools and their students, Polyfest festival now attracts over 100,000 visitors and brings together more than 70 schools to celebrate Moana Oceania cultures and more. The festival proudly showcases traditional music, dance, costumes, and languages, but it is the camaraderie, cultural enlightenment, and vibrant celebration of youth that truly stand out. Image: Hillary College Yearbook 1976. Auckland Libraries Research South In recent years, the festival has faced several challenges that have also impacted Aotearoa as a whole. In 2019, the nation mourned the tragic events in Christchurch, leading to the cancellation of the festival’s final day. The following year,...

There was a time not long ago when nearly every substantial community in Auckland hosted its own weekly newspaper. Most of these emerged in the aftermath of World War II, when returning soldiers moved into new homes in the suburbs. They quickly began commercial ventures and became involved in local politics. By 1960, there were around 30 community newspapers in the area that would become Auckland catering to a population of about 500,000. A few suburbs even supported multiple papers that catered to specific interest groups. Auckland Council Libraries and its predecessors have done their best to collect as many of these newspapers as possible and through this effort, stories have emerged from the golden age of community newspapers. Photo: Portrait of Noel E Roseman from the front page of the Ribbon News-Pictorial, 14 May 1968. Noel Eric Roseman of Grey Lynn was an unremarkable man when he printed his first newspaper in 1949. During the war, he had served in the Royal New Zealand Air For...

The Auckland Library Heritage Trust is a charitable trust that supports Auckland Libraries and Auckland Council to preserve, care for, add to, and promote Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections for the benefit of the people of Auckland. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections is one of New Zealand's key research destinations. It was originally established when Sir George Grey, a 19th-century Governor of New Zealand and later Premier, gifted his significant collection to the city of Auckland in the 1880s and has continued to grow since this time. The collections include photographs, maps, oral histories, manuscripts and archives, rare books and medieval manuscripts, ephemera and music; as well as Māori and Pacific heritage collections in all formats.  The Heritage Collections are held principally at the Central City Library.  Online access is provided through our collections website Kura Heritage Collections Online , the Auckland Libraries Catalogue , and Digital NZ .  Im...

Image: Auckland City Council. Sir Dove-Myer Robinson. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 580-79140B. Sir Dove-Myer Robinson has been remembered as a visionary environmentalist, who was ahead of his time. Robinson, or ‘Robbie’ as he became known, entered Auckland’s political scene in the 1940s, when he opposed the Brown’s Island plan that would have dumped untreated sewage into the Waitematā Harbour. He was elected to the Auckland City Council in 1953 and later served as Deputy Mayor. In 1959, he took on the role of Mayor of Auckland, and was the longest-serving mayor in the city's history, across two terms from 1959-1965 and 1968-1980.  Known for his charismatic and gregarious personality, Robinson was often seen riding a bicycle around the city or walking from his home in Remuera to the Town Hall shirtless, earning him the title of Auckland’s ‘Topless Mayor’.  Robinson was a strong advocate for urban planning and helped to improve the city’s bus and rail services. His e...

  That’s so last century: What we wore 1950s-1990s provides a snapshot of what some New Zealanders were wearing during the latter half of the twentieth century. Learn about how the garment industry impacted on different parts of Aotearoa society including the popularity of home sewing, where we shopped for clothes, the emergence of New Zealand based fashion designers, and the prevalence of local clothing manufacturers. This exhibition is on at Level 2 of Auckland's Central City Library from Wednesday 20 March - 13 July 2024.  In this podcast you’ll hear stories of all things fashion – from home dressmaking to professional tailoring, pattern shops and fabrics, being a follower of fashion and what sustainable fashion means in this century. Voices have been drawn from Auckland Libraries Oral History and Sound , Heritage Collections .  The lived experience – 50s & 60s fashion  In this track, jazz singer and follower of fashion, Wendy Moore provides her lived experien...