Episodes
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
Women Will Rise! Recalling the Working Women’s Charter
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
It's over 40 years since the Working Women's Charter was adopted as policy by the New Zealand Federation of Labour. The 16-clause Charter demanded rights for women in all aspects of life and work, including equal pay; ending discrimination; education and health rights; improved working conditions; quality child care; family and parental leave, and reproductive rights. But persuading the male-dominated trade union movement to adopt the Charter wasn't an easy job.
A panel of authors from the book Women Will Rise will trace the earlier working women's charters in New Zealand, and the work and organising done by trade union women and their supporters to achieve the Charter. Finally, a feminist historian of the generation following the 1970s Charter women reflects on their work. Songs from the period are included.
The speakers are among 11 co-authors of the book Women Will Rise! Recalling the Working Women's Charter:
- Sue Kedgley is a women’s advocate, author of a recent memoir Fifty Years a Feminist, and a former Green MP.
- Hazel Armstrong worked for women's liberation and unions. She is a lawyer specialising in health, safety and ACC work.
- Therese O'Connell has been active (and singing) in unions and other social justice movements.
- Grace Millar is a feminist, unionist and historian, currently working for the Public Service Association.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Recorded live on 3 October 2021.
Download a transcript of this talk:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/pdfs/transcript-women-will-rise-2022.pdf
Friday Sep 23, 2022
Mahuru Māori: Māni Dunlop and Jamie Tahana
Friday Sep 23, 2022
Friday Sep 23, 2022
Māni Dunlop (Ngāpuhi) and Jamie Tahana (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Makino, Te Arawa) are journalists and national broadcasters who actively champion te reo Māori me nga tikanga Māori through their work.
Māni was the first Māori journalist at RNZ to host a weekday show, while Jamie is one of RNZ’s youngest Māori News Directors. They began their careers as RNZ interns, Māni in 2011 and Jamie in 2014. Māni initially worked in the general newsroom focusing on housing and social issues. Jamie started at Radio New Zealand Pacific (formerly International) with a focus on climate change and political undulations.
Now, they’re incredibly popular Māori broadcasters. Every week, more than 600,000 people listen to RNZ and in 2021 the listenership of Te Ao Māori shows increased 55%. Thousands of Twitter followers want to know what their ‘takes’ are, beyond the stories they write and produce to the public.
For Mahuru Māori, Māni and Jamie spoke about their experiences, challenges, and triumphs of being at the front line of change in public radio. The past decade has seen dramatic changes in public radio, influenced by iwi radio, social media, politics, and pandemics. Today, these two young Māori journalists are now major decision-makers in the inclusion of Māori content and te reo Māori at a national level.
Facilitated by Pou Matua Mātauranga Māori, Senior Historian Mātauranga Māori, Matariki Williams (Tūhoe, Ngāti Hauiti, Taranaki, Ngāti Whakaue).
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Recorded live at the Wellesley Boutique Hotel on 6 September 2022.
Download a transcript of this talk:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/pdfs/transcript-mahuru-maori-2022-09-07.pdf
Friday Mar 04, 2022
The Platform: the radical legacy of the Polynesian Panthers
Friday Mar 04, 2022
Friday Mar 04, 2022
In this talk, Melani Anae, Associate Professor in Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland discusses aspects of her recent book, The Platform: the radical legacy of the Polynesian Panthers. In the book she writes, ‘Fifty years ago the Polynesian Panther Party began to shine a light on racism and oppressive systems, and we made small changes. But these small changes were and are so much greater than the sum of their parts; they are writ large by the liberating education some of us are still involved in and the snowballing effect it has.’
The book is both deeply personal and highly political and recalls the radical activism of Auckland’s Polynesian Panthers. In solidarity with the US Black Panther Party, the Polynesian Panthers were founded in response to the racist treatment of Pacific Islanders in the era of the Dawn Raids. Central to the group’s philosophy was a three-point ‘platform’ of peaceful resistance, Pacific empowerment and educating New Zealand about persistent and systemic racism.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 6 August 2021.
Download a transcript of this talk:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/pdfs/melani-anae-transcript.pdf
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Inside the Bubble
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Inside the Bubble : Kei Roto i te Miru is a collection of human stories recorded during Covid-19 lockdown in Aotearoa New Zealand. Oral historians worked in partnership with Ngā Pātaka Kōrero Auckland Libraries and Manatu Taonga to collect, create and conserve viewpoints from around the country.
Oral historian Will Hansen interviewed his flatmate Jack Hitchcox on ‘Queerintine’; living in an all queer flat during lockdown, being a frontline health worker, making art, watching films, reading books, transitioning, coming out to family and friends and future plans.
For further information or support check out InsideOut or Rainbow Youth
Transcript of this talk:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/documents/jacks-story-transcript.pdf
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
Kei roto i te miru: inside the bubble
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
What happens when a pandemic hits and the country is locked down? How can we help keep New Zealanders connected?
In collaboration with Sue Berman, Principal Oral History Advisor Auckland Libraries, staff at Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage got on Zoom and hatched a plan to use free online software to encourage nine oral historians from various communities around the country to collect short oral histories with our support. Thirty-five stories with Ngāti Porou, LGBTQI community members, rural Pākehā, health workers, musicians, young Mums, Pacific Island New Zealanders, Northland community workers and Chinese New Zealanders were the result.
In this talk Tuaratini will discuss her involvement in the project as a community interviewer, while radio producer and journalist Teresa Cowie will describe her experience working on the creative output of the oral histories. The resulting weekly podcast series, ‘Kei roto i te miru: inside the bubble’, launched on 25 March this year based on the interviews undertaken during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Thursday Mar 04, 2021
Tamihana Te Rauparaha’s life of Te Rauparaha
Thursday Mar 04, 2021
Thursday Mar 04, 2021
‘He Pukapuka Tātaku i ngā Mahi a Te Rauparaha Nui’ is a 50,000-word account of Te Rauparaha’s life written by his son Tamihana Te Rauparaha in the late 1860s. A rich source of Ngāti Toa history, language and culture, it offers fascinating insights into traditional Māori society and the tumultuous history of the 1820s and 1830s. This was an era characterised by intertribal conflict and the redrawing of the tribal map of Aotearoa, as well as by early encounters between Māori and Europeans that were largely conducted on Māori terms. Tamihana’s account of his father’s life has now been published in full for the first time in a parallel Māori/English edition.
In this talk, the book’s translator and editor Ross Calman will discuss the historical context that led to the creation of Tamihana’s manuscript, give an overview of how the manuscript has been represented by various writers and translators over the past 150 years and describe some of the challenges he faced in interpreting the manuscript for a modern audience.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 2 December 2020.
See also Te Rauparaha: Kei Wareware podcast series
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
Unpacking the Suitcase
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
When German-Jewish refugees arrived in New Zealand in the 1930s fleeing Hitler’s Europe, they brought everything they could from their former homes: furniture, luggage, personal documents, musical instruments, artwork, books, silverware, linen, a typewriter. Some of these humble and remarkable domestic objects survive today, a few in public heritage collections; most in the private family homes of descendants.
But while the Jewish refugee migration story is well known, less so is the story of those objects. In this talk, Louisa Hormann shares findings from a research project exploring the relationships between Holocaust survivor refugee families, their descendants, and the material objects they have inherited.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 7 October 2020.
Wednesday Sep 02, 2020
Māori women and the armed forces in WWII
Wednesday Sep 02, 2020
Wednesday Sep 02, 2020
Angela Wanhalla (Kāi Tahu), is an associate professor in the History Programme, University of Otago. She teaches and writes about New Zealand history and is currently involved in a collaborative research project on the histories and legacies of the Māori home front during the Second World War.
In this Public History Talk Angela Wanhalla looks at the recruitment of Māori women into the auxiliary services, why they joined, and how their wartime service impacted on their post-war lives.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 2 September 2020.
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Memorials, names and ethical remembering
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
How do we remember the past? What place do colonial memorials have in public spaces? How can we better represent diverse histories in the landscape?
In this first Public History Talk for 2020, Professor of Māori education at Victoria University, Joanna Kidman hosts a panel to discuss these issues and offer a facilitated conversation with the public on colonial memorials, history and memory.
About the panelists:
Morrie Love (Te Atiawa ki te Upoko o te Ika a Mauī, Taranaki, Ngati Ruanui) is Director Raukura Consultants, a writer and historian.
Nicky Karu (Hauraki: Paeroa and Thames Coast) Tira Poutama Iwi Partnerships.
Ewan Morris (Pākehā) is a historian with an interest in public memory and cultural contestation over symbols.
These free Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and Manatū Taonga/Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 15 July, 2020.
Wednesday Oct 02, 2019
Wairoa Lockout: an oral history
Wednesday Oct 02, 2019
Wednesday Oct 02, 2019
Since 2010, the small town of Wairoa on the East Coast of New Zealand has been at the centre of the most bitter and protracted industrial dispute in New Zealand’s recent history. The agri-business giant, Talley’s Group, took over the town’s meat plant in 2010 and commenced a campaign to ‘draw the line on union influence’.
Drawing on oral histories, this talk by Ross Webb focuses on the campaign by meat workers to save their union, the sacrifices involved, and the legacy of three successive lockouts on workers and the community.
Ross Webb is an historian with an interest in labour history. He is currently a PhD candidate at Victoria University, Wellington.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 2 October 2019.
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Pūkana: moments in Māori performance
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
From Porgy and Bess to haka, to Elsdon Best and Tuini Ngāwai, Pūkana will range far and wide to give a sense of the ihi, wehi and wana, inherent to Maori performance.
Paul Diamond is lead curator for the Pūkana exhibition, and talks about the background to the exhibition which celebrates Māori performance across time. Paul (Ngāti Hauā, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi) was appointed as Curator, Māori at the Alexander Turnbull Library in 2011. He is an author and has also worked as an oral historian and broadcaster.
Pūkana opens on 14 September, 2019 and runs until 23 May 2020 at the National Library of New Zealand, in Wellington New Zealand.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 4 September 2019.
Please note, due to copyright restrictions, some of the audio and video excerpts played during the presentation are not able to be republished and the presentation has been edited to reflect this.
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
My Body, My Business
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
In this presentation, oral historian, writer and editor Caren Wilton talks about using oral history – ‘history from below’ – to document what can seem to be a secret or hidden world, and telling stories that are both extraordinary and ordinary.
Her book 'My Body, My Business: New Zealand sex workers in an era of change’ is a collection of intimate portraits of New Zealand sex workers, based on her series of oral-history interviews carried out over a nine-year period.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 3 April 2019.
Thursday Aug 02, 2018
Polly Plum and the first wave of feminism
Thursday Aug 02, 2018
Thursday Aug 02, 2018
As we celebrate 125 years of women’s suffrage, it's time to re-evaluate Polly Plum, once described as ‘a highly controversial public figure for a few years only’.
In this Public History Talk, feminist historian and author Jenny Coleman shares some of the lesser-known parts of social reformer Mary Ann Colclough's (AKA Polly Plum) life, and her role in the “first wave” of feminism in New Zealand. She was also a leading educationalist and one of the earliest published female authors in New Zealand.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/.
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 1 August 2018.
Wednesday Jul 04, 2018
‘Researching kindergarten: the endeavours of women for the play of children’
Wednesday Jul 04, 2018
Wednesday Jul 04, 2018
In this Public History Talk about an iconic kiwi institution, two historians of early childhood education present the outline of their new book, Growing a Kindergarten Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago Helen May, and retired senior lecturer Kerry Bethell, Massey Universtiy, have published and presented nationally and internationally on the subject of early childhood education.
This book is their first joint publication which saw them travelling extensively around historical kindergarten sites and delving into archives, allowing them to gather new sources for their research.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 4 July 2018.
Wednesday Jun 06, 2018
‘The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, redux’
Wednesday Jun 06, 2018
Wednesday Jun 06, 2018
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography was originally published in five print volumes between 1990 and 2000. It comprised 3000 biographical essays about a wide range of deceased New Zealanders who had come to prominence by 1960. The Dictionary went online in 2001. In 2010 it was merged with Te Ara: the Encyclopedia of New Zealand to form the single largest reference work on New Zealand's history and society https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies
The combined Dictionary and Te Ara website is one of the largest works of scholarship ever undertaken in this country, and is unique in the world.
Since 2000 The Dictionary has been in hiatus, with the exception of a batch of 15 biographies that were published online in 2010-11. In 2017 the Ministry for Culture and Heritage decided to resume work on the Dictionary, and to publish a new batch of biographies online every year. The new programme commences with 20 new biographies of women which will be published in September this year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
In this presentation, senior historian Tim Shoebridge - the Dictionary’s programme manager, will speak about the challenges posed and opportunities offered by this new chapter in the Dictionary’s life.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand https://natlib.govt.nz/ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage https://mch.govt.nz/
Recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand, 6 June 2018.
Wednesday May 02, 2018
Jazzy Nerves, Aching Feet, and Foxtrots: New Zealand’s Jazz Age
Wednesday May 02, 2018
Wednesday May 02, 2018
Douglas Lilburn Research Fellow, Dr Aleisha Ward explores some of the many facets of ‘jazz’ in New Zealand’s Jazz Age. The image of 1920s New Zealand is frequently one of a quiet, staid society that ‘closed at 5’. Contrary to belief however, New Zealand had a flourishing, vibrant, urban landscape and a burgeoning jazz scene.
Dr Aleisha Ward is the 2017 Douglas Lilburn Research Fellow and a recipient of a 2018 Ministry for Culture and Heritage New Zealand History Research Trust Fund award investigating the Jazz Age in New Zealand.
Aleisha is an award-winning writer, freelance editor, and lecturer in music history. She writes about jazz in New Zealand for a number of publications including audioculture.co.nz and New Zealand Musician and on her own blog NZ Jazz https://nzjazz.wordpress.com/shameless-self-promotion/
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Recorded at the National Library of New Zealand, 2 May 2018.
Wednesday Apr 11, 2018
How does a city make a writer?
Wednesday Apr 11, 2018
Wednesday Apr 11, 2018
Redmer Yska is a Wellington based writer and historian, and is author to many New Zealand history works.
Redmer presents his latest work 'A Strange Beautiful Excitement, Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington, 1888-1903’, and discusses a new connection between Mansfield's family and Women's Suffrage. He tried, as he put it, to ‘catch a glimpse of her in the open air: striding through the gale, long hair flying’.
His research into Thorndon’s festering, deadly surroundings also led him to propose a new theory for the family’s 1893 move to Karori.
Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Recorded at the National Library of New Zealand, 7 March 2018.
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Māori Women, Politics and Petitions in the 19th Century
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Wednesday Apr 04, 2018
Dr Angela Wanhalla teaches in the Department of History and Art History at the University of Otago, Dunedin. This presentation draws upon her most recent book, He Reo Wāhine: Māori Women’s Voices from the Nineteenth Century, co-authored with Māori-language scholar and historian, Lachy Paterson.
Collective petitions have helped force significant political and social reform in New Zealand. This talk introduces women petitioners and their concerns and argues that petitions are an important body of Māori writing that can offer insight into Māori women’s experiences of the colonial era.
These monthly Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Recorded at the National Library of New Zealand, 4 April 2018.
Wednesday Sep 06, 2017
The Broken Decade: 1928 - 39 by Malcom McKinnon
Wednesday Sep 06, 2017
Wednesday Sep 06, 2017
In this presentation, Malcolm McKinnon considers the significance of the year 1932 in New Zealand’s history. Keith Sinclair famously described the disturbances of that year and the government’s harsh response as marking New Zealand’s nadir. But the disturbances also prompted the government to abandon its austerity policy, although this was hard to pick at the time, and a political impasse about the way forward stymied recovery
Malcolm is a Wellington historian. His study The Broken Decade: Prosperity, depression and recovery in New Zealand, 1928-39, was published by Otago University Press in 2016.
These public history talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and are recorded monthly, live at the National Library of New Zealand.
Thursday Mar 26, 2015
Thursday Mar 26, 2015
Historian Margaret Pointer discusses why 150 Niueans were accepted for service in the Māori Contingent, their experiences in Auckland, Egypt France and England and what life was lie for the men returning home.
Recorded at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 6 August 2014.