Nau mai ki te pānui
o Ngā Taonga
Welcome to our newsletterIn our final newsletter for the year, we are excited to share
our annual holiday video, as well as the newly uploaded first series of the
iconic educational TV series Korero Mai from 1983. We also announce a
change to our Board of Trustees and take a look at the recent Moriori Language
Week. Archives can play an important role in tracing the histories of languages
and even reconstructing those that are dormant. If linguistics is of interest
to you be sure to check out our new Curated Collection He Reo Rongomaiwhiti
– Voices of our Ancestors, which showcases different Māori dialects. Every year we make a holiday video
to share something special from the collection. This year our film team
preserved several charming home movies from the Goldsmith family, dating from
the late 1920s to the 1940s. Amateur filmmaker Bernard Harry Goldsmith captured
many scenes of the family having fun together over the years, at a time when
owning a home movie camera was still unusual. He also took some stunning
footage of ruined buildings and tent villages in the immediate aftermath of the
1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake. It was a privilege to digitally preserve and watch these
films in 2025, and with the family’s permission we decided to use some of their
vintage summer holiday footage to make our holiday video. The groundbreaking educational TV series Korero Mai (1983)
has been newly uploaded to the online collection. Each of the six original Korero
Mai episodes, starring Pou Temara and Mei Taare, used conversation, skits,
animations and songs to make learning te reo Māori accessible to people of all
ages and backgrounds. Closing dates for the holidays Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision will close for the holidays on
December 24, 2025, and re-open on January 5, 2026. Please note that the
National Library Reading Room, where our in-person services are located, will
be closed from 4pm Tuesday 23 December 2025 and
reopen on Thursday 8 January 2026. Emily Loughan has finished her tenure as Co-Chair. She has
been a Chair since 2021, originally as a solo Chair and then in 2022 as
Co-Chair when Ngā Taonga changed its Constitution to incorporate co-governance
at Chair level. During Emily’s time as Chair Ngā Taonga successfully
completed, in collaboration with National Library and Archives NZ, the Utaina
project. Utaina is the largest audiovisual digitisation project ever undertaken
in New Zealand and has resulted in vast Crown collections being saved by creating
400,600 digital preservation masters, 332,000 (83%) of which are in the care of
Ngā Taonga. It has also transformed Ngā Taonga from primarily an analogue
archive into a digital archive, opening up a wealth of opportunities around
long-term safe storage and increased access to the collections for New
Zealanders. Emily will continue as a Trustee until June 2026, when her
third term ends. Current Board of Trustee member, Amit Prasad, has been
appointed as the new Co-Chair working alongside current Co-Chair Lynell Tuffery
Huria. Nei rā a Ngā Taonga e mihi nei ki ngā uri whakaheke o
Rēkohu, otirā te orokohanga o tēnei kaupapa rangatira e whakanui nei tātou i
Wik’ a ta rē Moriori!
During the month of November, we celebrated the inaugural
Wik’ a ta rē Moriori - Moriori Language Week! Marking a significant milestone
in history for the people of Rēkohu.
Recently a movement has grown to revitalise the language and
to educate all New Zealanders about Moriori history and culture. Because of a
lack of audio recordings, bringing ta rē Moriori back from dormancy has
involved a lot of archival research and scholarship. In this 1989 recording,
historian Michael King and Hēnare te Ua confront some myths about Moriori
people.
He reo nō uki, ā moroki noa nei, he reo ora! News briefs Image credits: - Screenshot
from holiday video
- Screenshot
of presenter Mei Taare in episode 1 of Korero Mai
- Board
member Emily Loughan
- A group
of Moriori Women, Chatham Islands. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
AWNS-19060405-14-02
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