Nau mai ki te pānui
o Ngā Taonga
Welcome to our newsletter In this issue we share the first ever episode of the long-running radio series Spectrum, which dramatises a famous and mysterious shipwreck. We get into the spirit of Halloween with an amateur ghost movie from 1935, and look forward to a pair of screenings as part of Wellington Heritage Week. In the spirit of spooky season, this month we are delving into collection items that deal with the mysterious. If you follow us on social media, you may already have seen one or two of our recent Mystery Month posts (and if you don’t already, you can follow our Facebook here). Each links to an audio collection item that describes or re-enacts an unusual event in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history. This week’s mystery involves the 1866 shipwreck of the General Grant, dramatised by the long-running radio series Spectrum. It’s a remarkable story of disaster and survival, with an unsolved question that still lingers – what happened to the millions of dollars in gold that went down with the ship? As Halloween looms, we are taking the opportunity to revisit Two Live Ghosts, which was added to our online collection earlier this year. In this amateur film from 1935, a group of campers decide to investigate a haunted house and end up fighting a ‘ghost’. It was shot on tinted film, with different colours intended to represent different lighting or times of day. We especially like the hand-drawn title cards. As part of the Wellington Heritage Festival 2024, the Newtown Community Centre will be hosting two screenings of selected archival footage from our collection. We were proud to supply extracts from 15 films depicting Newtown and the wider city of Wellington across nearly a century. The selected films date from 1917 to 2012 and include both professional and amateur footage, to be accompanied by live music. Newtown (and Beyond) on Film screens at the Newtown Community Centre, Wellington on 30 October at 6pm and on 2 November at 2pm. On Thursday 10 October, Ngā Taonga was honoured to attend the UNESCO Memory of the World inscription ceremony for the 1974 series Tangata Whenua. Tangata Whenua has been officially recognised as a significant piece of the nation's documentary heritage. It has been preserved and protected for future generations. It now sits alongside taonga like the Treaty of Waitangi and World War II New Zealand Mobile Broadcasting Unit Recordings on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Ngā Taonga is proud to care for Tangata Whenua, and to have digitally preserved the groundbreaking series in 4K resolution in 2022. All six episodes can be viewed on TVNZ+. He taonga tuku iho. I hangā te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi nā runga mai i te ture Tiriti o Waitangi 1975. Ko tā te rōpū whāinga matua, ko te arohaehae i ngā kokoraho Māori e pā ana ki ngā wāwāhinga ture Tiriti o Waitangi me te tuku i ā rātou whakatau. The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 set up the Waitangi Tribunal with the power to investigate claimed breaches of the Treaty from 10 October 1975 (the date the Act was passed) and make recommendations for settling them. At first, the Tribunal could only hear claims about current government actions. In 1985, Parliament allowed the Tribunal to investigate events dating back to 1840. In this audio item, Sir Wira Gardiner (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pikiao, Whakatōhea, Te Whānau-a-Apanui) speaks at a series of youth forums as part of the Office of the Race Relation's education programme in Auckland, 1989. A highly respected senior public servant and tireless advocate for his people, Sir Wira was the first director of the Waitangi Tribunal and played a pivotal role in the historic treaty settlements of the 1990s. News briefs Correction: in our previous newsletter we mistakenly referred to former prime minister Sir Joseph Ward as Joseph George. George was his middle name. The National Library invites you to a free screening of the film Bliss: The Beginning of Katherine Mansfield, on 23 October. The film was supplied by Ngā Taonga and will be introduced by director Fiona Samuel. Details here. On October 31, the National Library commemorates 80 years since over 700 Polish refugee children arrived in New Zealand. This event includes a screening of a touching 1944 Weekly Review newsreel. The exhibition Kiriata o Poneke – Films of Wellington is still running at Te Waka Huia Wellington Museum.
1) Mystery Month image by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. 2) Screengrab from PERSONAL RECORD. LAMBOURNE, AD. TWO LIVE GHOSTS (F26604). 3) Newtown (and Beyond) on Film promotional image. Supplied by Newtown Community Centre. 4) Sir Wira Gardiner. New Zealand Government, Office of the Governor-General. Creative Commons. 5) UNESCO Memory of the World inscription event 2024. By Anaru Dalziel. |
