Heritage et AL

During the process of researching the dancing life of New Zealander Jan Caryll, I have discovered valuable insights into the history of New Zealand dance, significantly, teaching methods that link practices here to late nineteenth century European ballet. While accounts of local dance recitals in New Zealand from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including programmes and newspaper articles, mention the numerous dances performed by children, usually stating the name of an item and its performers, a lesser known element in these accounts are the styles and techniques of those dances. It has been assumed that dance in New Zealand in this era consisted of frivolous, somewhat exuberant displays of ‘fancy dancing’. While it is true that ‘fancy dancing’, a style enveloping a myriad of steps that propelled a dancer across, up and down the stage or studio, formed a component of dance classes and performances, my research has unearthed hidden evidence of strict and historically ...

Auckland celebrates its LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) communities during the Pride Festival in February. Pride Festival has become an important part of the Auckland Libraries’ calendar, with a number of events such as pop-up libraries and storytimes programmed over the course of the month (including at the  same same but different festival ). However, as recently as the early 1980s not only was it legal to discriminate against a person on the basis of their (declared or suspected) sexual orientation, certain ‘homosexual behaviour’ was criminalised. At the time that Wellington Central MP Fran Wilde introduced the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1985, there was fierce debate both among politicians and throughout society about what the passing of such a bill might mean for New Zealand. In the Sir George Grey Special Collections reading room, Central City Library, the Homosexual Law Reform clippings scrapbook will be on display during February. ...

A collection of 1970s newspaper articles regarding Māori is available to view in the Sir George Grey Special Collections reading room or to search online at Index Auckland . The scrapbooks contain many useful items for whakapapa or historical research, from obituaries to articles promoting the introduction of Māori language teaching in schools. Copies are also available in the Central Research Centre . Even though the clippings are not precisely dated, nor source newspapers always identified, reading through the Scrapbooks reveals areas of concern and celebration for Māori at that time . Ref:  Photograph of three year old Raewyn Tiari,  [Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings about Maori] volume 2, page 17,  1972-1975, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 995.3 S43.

Did you know that June the 9 th is International Archives Day ? To celebrate, archive services from around the world were invited to submit an image from their collections and send a message to archival colleagues around the world. See if you can find all the contributions from New Zealand in the photo page , according to the NZ Records email list there are nine. Information about the gestation of International Archives Day and the reasoning behind it can be found at the International Council on Archives website . The hashtag #IAD15 was also really enjoyable to follow on Twitter throughout the day; happily Britain’s National Archives have collated them in Storify form . All of Auckland Libraries’ Research Centres hold archival collections, as does the Birkenhead Library which is home to the Chelsea Sugar Refinery’s archive . Through sheer coincidence the subject of both of Auckland Libraries’ contributions were the personal papers of decorated war heroes. Ref: Don ...