THEN :: Histories of Pāmutana

29/09/2024

Inspired by a Manawatū Time Machine session on street names, with local primary teachers, we have contributed a piece to the Back Issues series (Manawatū Standard) focusing on streets named after Palmerston North mayors.

Fun fact: It appears that mayors serving the city since 1971 are not remembered in our street names. However, we do have John F Kennedy Drive and Trump Place!

📚We are collating info on local odonyms - streets named after people. We welcome local mātauranga on street names as we build up our 'Face to a Name' project. Feel free to msg or email us 🤓

Names we choose can symbolise a great deal about our culture and worldview. Street names can express social, cultural or political values.

26/07/2024

Calling Y4-8 teachers of the Aotearoa NZ histories curriculum. We have two seats available in the second 'Manawatū Time Machine'. 🕰

We meet on Tuesdays from 3.30 - 4.30pm in the school house at Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science & Heritage on the following dates:
Term 3: 30 July, 13 & 27 Aug, 17 Sep
Term 4: 22 Oct, 5 & 19 Nov, 3 Dec

Cost $199pp on invoice
Contact us by messenger or email [email protected] for our information flier or to book your seat.

📢 A local principal says, "Can thoroughly recommend. We had staff in the first programme and have signed up more staff for the second programme based on how pumped the original attendees have felt about it."

24/07/2024

160th anniversary
Yesterday uri o Rangitāne journeyed to Te Whanganui a Tara to Archives New Zealand to view the Te Ahu a Turanga document signed by ancestors on 23 July 1864. The trip included connecting with Rangitāne taonga at Te Papa. We provided the "160" edition of biscuits by Griffin's. (Coincidentally they were founded by John Griffin in Nelson in 1864.)

📷 Warbricks in the back seat of the fancy chartered bus!

22/07/2024

It's that time of the year when we ponder various aspects of the 23 July 1864 transfer of land by Rangitāne ki Manawatū to the crown. This week we have written about Parahaki Island for the Manawatū Standard's Back Issues series.

A block sale to the Crown 160 years ago did not include Parahaki Island in the Manawatū Gorge.

10/07/2024

Did you know that the clock face and chimes were named Kerei Te Panau in honour of a Rangitāne rangatira born at the beginning of the 19th century?

Warren told the Manawatū Guardian, "Because there are four faces on the clock tower, we feel that [Te Panau] is still watching over us as a people and a number of us older ones when we hear the chimes going we like to think that he is having his say ... We stop and listen to what he has to say.”

Rangitāne view the clock as a symbol of rangatira Kerei Te Panau.

04/04/2024

March was Heritage Month in Pāmutana. We gave a talk about earth-bound mahi toi inspired by Rangitāne pūrākau, and another talk about Palmerstonians named on the Palmerston North War Memorial. We created videos for a six-location tour (The Toi Tour), we announced the start of our Face to a Name project, and led a group around Te Uru Karaka. We also installed signs on lampposts directly opposite key locations, such as a castle and bullring, in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, Spain (see more info at toiwarbrick.com): IYKYK.

If you participated - what did you enjoy most? If not - which of these activities would you be keen to see repeated? Or do you have suggestions or requests? Comment below or PM us!



📷 Warren joined Prof. Giselle Byrnes, Assoc. Prof. Geoff Watson, and Prof. Em. Russell Poole for a panel discussion on whenua, surrounded by Back Issues features (Manawatū Standard), at Palmerston North City Library during the highlight week of Heritage Month - 'Local History Week 2024'.

05/03/2024

📢 Local History Week runs until Sunday 10 March. Are you interested in hearing Rangitāne ki Manawatū pūrākau and perspectives?

🚗 Today, 12.30-1.30pm: Te Ahu a Turanga highway with Waka Kotahi NZTA staff Terry Hapi and Grant Kauri Library

🌿 Thursday, 5.30-6.30pm: Taiao with Prof Jonathan Procter Library

🌳 Saturday, 4-5pm: Karaka Grove with Craig Kawana Grove

✏️ Sunday, 1.30-2.30pm: Panel discussion on writing about land, includes Warren Warbrick Library

📷 Warbricks step back in time by taking the 'Tokomaru' rail car through Te Āpiti during Local History Week 2024.

27/02/2024

Heritage Month begins on Friday! There are 80 talks, walks, guided experiences and workshops across March. We are giving two talks this weekend, we've devised two tours and we are running a workshop. Stay tuned for more ...

📢 Heritage Month announcement! Opening weekend activities for your diary …
🌳 Take part in a pōwhiri at the beautiful Rangimarie Marae (Sat 2 Mar), stay for lunch and hear Warren Warbrick talk about Rangitāne artworks in the city. ✏️
🚐 It’s your last chance to nab some tickets for the historic rail car trip through Te Āpiti – Manawatū Gorge (Sun 3 Mar). ✏️
🌿 Join Geoff Watson & Mike Roche for a walk in the Victoria Esplanade (Sun 3 Mar) and find out what happens to green waste at the Awapuni Resource Recovery Park (Mon 4 Mar). ✏️
✏️ Register to participate: https://bit.ly/HeritageMonthRegistrations
See the full programme: https://citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz/whats-on/programme/local-history

22/02/2024

We have run some sessions in recent weeks with kaiako or students on the reasons and meanings behind names we use every day in our rohe. Featherston Street, Fitzherbert Avenue and Ferguson Street were named after these 19th century politicians? Only Scotsman Alexander Ferguson (c. 1846-1931) ever lived in Palmerston North, arriving in 1878. He was Mayor from 1885-86 and left town a couple of years later.

24/11/2023

Virginia presented the Back Issues series (Manawatū Standard) at the New Zealand Historical Association conference in Ōtautahi Christchurch this morning. A reflection on the many writers (30+) involved and the role of Palmerston North City Library and our daily newspaper in the creation and publication of new insights on historical topics of our region. Discussions included the importance of the Manawatū Heritage repository and the Manawatū Evening Standard negatives collection along with future ideas for the series.

23/11/2023

We were nearly confused for South Island Palmerstonians at the New Zealand Historical Association conference in Ōtautahi Christchurch today. We presented on our city's "150th" in 2021 which lead to our own 23 July 1864 campaigns in the same year: yellow anniversary cards and geeky graffiti in the CBD. At the time, a card recipient gave us the idea to develop Rākau - Being a Palmerstonian, which we also presented to the conference. Thanks, Alexander, for the inspiration!

20/11/2023

We've just been keynote speakers at the NZARE - New Zealand Association for Research in Education national conference being held at Massey University this week. Entitled 'Telling Stories, mostly without words', we shared recent place-based projects inspired by pūrākau and histories of our rohe. Thanks for inviting us!

11/11/2023

We took part in the PNCC Play Festival - Taiopenga ā-Rēhia in Te Marae o Hine this weekend. We combined the use of historical images from the Manawatū Heritage repository with line drawing: photos of Palmerston North people from 100 years ago inspiring heads, bodies and legs for a game of 'Exquisite Co**se', a concept created by the Surrealists about 100 years ago. There were preschoolers, children, savvy teens, parents and the Mayor of Palmerston North playing the game.

https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/exquisite-corpse

Thanks to our beaut volunteers Nicki and Dave 💚

20/10/2023

20 years ago I installed ~100m² of paintings on the 40th anniversary of the Palmerston North Railway Station opening, thanks to my first arts grant. I'm holding a picture of four friends I enlisted to do paint-by-numbers on the large fabrics which hung inside the first floor windows. The paintings were inspired by the NZR logo, site maps, photos of the opening ceremony from the Ian Matheson City Archives and newspaper reports of the time. There was no media reporting in 2003 about this project, so, on the 60th anniversary of the station opening, I'm revealing who was behind the mystery installation!

23/09/2023

Our first stint as keynote speakers! We were invited by SLANZA Te Whare Puna Mātauranga a Kura Central to speak at their conference happening this weekend. We talked about being Creatives in Schools at Wi******er School and Te Kura O Wairau. We shared project work from participating in the NZL partnership programme with Palmerston North City Library and some cautionary tales about taking care with local histories in schools. Thanks for the invite 🤓📚📖

Our session was sponsored by https://librarytech.co.nz

https://www.slanza.org.nz/conference-23-speakers.html

09/09/2023

Celebrating 100 stories in the weekly, local history "Back Issues" series in the Manawatū Standard. We have contributed six features to the series alongside the mahi of 30 other historians, researchers and writers. Virginia coordinates the series for Palmerston North City Library. If you have a story idea or might be interested in contributing to the series yourself, get in touch.

Our most viewed feature to date:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/300643817/back-issues-connecting-with-the-past-via-historical-objects

28/07/2023

Museums. Rangitāne pouwhenua (carvings). Paris. Warren in his 20s. Years ending in the number "3". Read on!

(Page 2 of today's Manawatū Standard, for analogue readers 🤓)

It's 30 years since four pouwhenua were returned to Rangitāne. It was thought to be forever.

22/07/2023

Happy anniversary people of Pāmutana / Palmerston North! Today we recognise it being 159 years since Rangitāne signed a deed of sale for the Te Ahu a Turanga block, with the intent of there being a town where Palmerston North sits today. The deed is held by Archives New Zealand and you can see a digitisation at: https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE46441008

21/07/2023

Let us tell you about the magistrate, the interpreter and the sheep farmer involved in the 23 July 1864 Te Ahu a Turanga sale. We have a feature in the Manawatū Standard's Back Issues series this weekend:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/300932513/back-issues-the-momentous-deal-overseen-by-a-magistrate-an-interpreter-and-a-sheep-farmer

📷 Ruahine Kindergartens and Early Learning taking part in Rākau: Being a Palmerstonian, July 2023

13/07/2023

Rākau: Being a Palmerstonian - an all day experience at Rangimarie Marae, Rangiotu. 📷 A sunny day in April with staff from Ruahine Kindergartens and Early Learning, "It was inspirational and our team has not stopped talking about it". We have one more session in 2023 which is open for sign-ups: Mon 25 Sep. For more info and/or to nab your place, email: [email protected]

04/06/2023

Since 2014 the female supporter of the Palmerston North coat of arms has been missing her boot. Virginia speaks to Manawatu People's Radio about it.

First aired after the 8am news on Mon 5 June:
https://player.accessmedia.nz/Player.aspx?eid=50f27bc7-d522-4157-93bd-60feae70fd2a

15/03/2023

A brilliant, sunny day to begin our Creatives in Schools 2023 project with sixty Y5-6 students, their three kaiako and whanau support. A history trip to three locations today (Rangitāne pūrākau), then three intensive days of drawing, writing and sound-making next week ... new art inspired by history.

📷 The kōwhaiwhai path is called Tini whetū ki te rangi, ko Rangitāne nui ki te whenua.

13/03/2023

The Manawatū Standard wrote about our petition to council requesting the return of 'her' boot. There are still some council processes to come and we are planning to write about our city's armorial arms in the Back Issues local history series in the Manawatū Standard in May. The story doesn't end here!

A woman on Palmerston North's coat of arms went barefoot. No-one knows why.

10/03/2023

Do you know where Te Awa o Manawatū starts, like a small and windy stream? On Sunday, in collaboration with Palmerston North City Library, we led a group of Palmerstonians on a 12-hour journey from one end of the awa to the other, with ten stops at the edge of the awa along the way.

"It was a glorious day"; "It was incredibly moving to hear Warren play his pūtōrino near the source of the river and then again in Awahou / Foxton"; "I loved it! It was great to hear the stories where they happened!"

As your local historical tour agency we continue to develop a range of experiences for individuals, groups and organisations. Where can we take you?!

07/03/2023

It's International Women's Day and it's Heritage Month in Palmerston North. So, today we presented our petition to council, requesting the re-booting of the female character (supporter) in our city's armorial bearings. She had been wearing a boot for 25 years, then **someone** digitally changed her left boot to a bare foot in 2014. Following our presentation it was announced in the council chamber that the boot will be reinstated. Thanks to everyone who signed the petition!

📷 From the Ian Matheson City Archives: 1980s preliminary designs for the new armorial bearings, with the image on the right being the official "print" version used by council from 1989.