Heritage et AL

Blame it on the rain by Hana Pera Aoake Carin Smeaton : Kia ora Hana, You’ve been a busy mama! I’ve just finished reading your gorgeous little pocket-sized pukapuka 'Blame It On the Rain' and now I’m reading your third (and latest) 'Some Helpful Models of Grief.' I love the philosophies that you weave through your writings with the humour and socio historical threads that we writers from this part of the world tend to shy away from. I love that you don’t sanitise things and I love reading books that embrace that edge. Could you please let us Aucklanders know where you’re from and your connections to Tāmaki Makaurau?  Some helpful models of grief by Hana Pera Aoake Hana Pera Aoake : He uri tenei nō Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Waikato/Tainui, Te Arawa, me Poutini Ngāi Tahu. Kei te noho au ki Kawerau. I tipu ake au Ōtepoti me Te whenua Moemoea. Ko Aoake tōku whanau. Ko Miriama Jean taku Tamāhine. Ko Hana Pera Aoake toku ingoa.  Kia ora, my name is Hana. I'm from a...

In November 2004 Stephen Deed presented a Master of Arts Thesis to the University of Otago entitled U nearthly landscapes: the development of the cemetery in nineteenth century New Zealand , and until recently that limited access thesis was the only major historical study of cemeteries in New Zealand. Deed has now updated and expanded on his thesis, which has now been published by Otago University Press as Unearthly landscapes; New Zealand’s early cemeteries, churchyards and urupā . Deed’s book covers tradi tional Māori u rupā , Pākehā influenced Māori burial places, early Pākehā and Church Mission Station burial grounds, and urban and rural cemeteries of the nineteenth century. He also makes a distinction between what he terms ‘first generation’ cemeteries such as Bolton Street (Wellington) and Symonds Street (Auckland) and ‘second generation’ better planned cemeteries such as Southern Cemetery (Dunedin) and Waikumete Cemetery (Auckland). The book is very well il...

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.

Image: North Auckland's Native Lands: Maoris attending the Land Court at Ahipara (1904) Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19041027-11-1 The Māori Land Court minute books are a very important resource for whakapapa research. They are also valuable for local history, early Māori history, and Waitangi Tribunal research. " Whakapapa literally means the ‘laying down of generations’ layer upon layer. Whakapapa is about people, it is a link to tūpuna, to heritage, to identity. For Māori it is a taonga, and for many it is also tapu. Traditionally whakapapa was handed down orally to a member of the whānau deemed appropriate to look after the whānau whakapapa ." (Paewai, 2015, p2). The Native Land Court (renamed Māori Land Court in 1947) was established in 1865 with the purpose of translating customary Māori land ownership into legal land titles recognisable under English Law. Traditional Māori land rights involved communal ownership ...

Image:  An old institution: the first Land Court building erected in New Zealand, built at Hokianga. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19070502-2-4 To search the minute books you will need to use the Māori Land Court Minute Book Index. This index was created in the 1990s by librarians at the University of Auckland. The index covers 1,100 minute books from the whole country for hearings held between 1865-1910. The index is available via two platforms. Either through Knowledge Basket , which Auckland Libraries members can access online, or through DBTextworks. Auckland Libraries members can search the DBTextworks version on computers at the Central Auckland Research Centre , the South Auckland Research Centre and the West Auckland Research Centre . We recommend using the DBTextworks version if possible as it enables specific field searching, the results can be easier to interpret and you can utilise the 'browse feature' to look up terms used ...