Heritage et AL

Awekura is a blog and podcast series that highlights treasures within Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. In this series, library specialists provide a window into the world of these special collections.   Recently we opened Lupe I Vao Ese, a Pacific heritage exhibition at Auckland Central City Library. The phrase "Lupe I Vao Ese" is a poetic metaphor from Gagana Sāmoa, translating as "doves in different pastures." It expresses how measina - the cultural treasures of Moana Oceania - travel across time and place, carrying the voices of ancestors into the present and beyond.   Featuring in the exhibition and discussed in the interview below, Pamata Toleafoa, Curator Pasifika, highlights tapa as one of the measina displayed in the exhibition. Of interest is a contemporary [1983] unique ephemeral greeting card, made in tapa and depicting Tongan traditional dress.    Image: Front page of the ephemera. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Eph-Item00012. T...

This week Auckland Libraries are celebrating Uike 'o e Lea Faka-Tonga, Tongan Language Week with a range of events across our libraries. This year also marks the 50th year commemoration of Queen Sālote's death and Tonga's Coronation of King Tupou VI. As the theme for Tongan Language Week this year is "Fakakoloa Aotearoa 'aki 'a e faiva 'a e Tonga - Enriching Aotearoa New Zealand with Tongan arts" an appropriate way to pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of Queen Sālote’s passing is to highlight some of the music and poetry that she wrote. Image: Queen Sālote of Tonga, 1960s. Photographer: Clifton Firth. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 34-0375 Historian and biographer of Queen Sālote, Elizabeth Wood-Ellem writes that: “The Queen was… acclaimed as an extremely gifted poet. Queen Sālote spent many hours perfecting the words of her poems, and she invited groups of musicians to come to the Palace in the evenings to work with her. They o...