April marked 50 years since Avalon Studios officially opened in Lower Hutt. The purpose-built television centre, at the time one of the largest television-making facilities in Australasia, stars in this 1975 promotional film, which demonstrates its state-of-the-art recording and broadcast technology.
Avalon Studios was a hub of Aotearoa New Zealand film and television production for many years, and continues to host local and international productions today. Our Motutawa digital preservation facility, where we preserve and store historic television shows among other recordings, also operates on the original Avalon Studios site
To mark Anzac Day
this year, we contributed a story to The Post that features rare footage
of WWI soldiers in Wellington shortly before departure overseas. The short film
New Zealanders for the Front: Official Farewell includes footage from
both 1914 and 1915 and is also available to watch in the online collection along with many other WWI and WWII films
and sound recordings.
In this 1984 audio taonga from the RNZ Collection, Keri Kaa interviews
the late Robyn Kahukiwa about her life and work. Robyn passed away recently
leaving a body of work that spans decades. In this interview she touches on her
journey as an artist, starting as a commercial artist, to drawing illustrations
for children's books, to the Wahine Toa exhibition and book.
E te pōhoi pākurakura kua
riro ki te hau, e te tuhi māreikura e Robyn, marire koe ki runga rā, takahia te
ara whānui ki te toi o ngā rangi, ki te tahuaroa o Hawaiki pāmamao.
