No Images? Click here 28 October 2016Ngā Tapuwae, the Footprints, is the newsletter of Archives New Zealand. It tells the stories of our people, our work and achievements. In this issue...
EditorialWelcome to another edition of Ngā Tapuwae. We are already well into the second half of the year, and it is full steam ahead here at Archives New Zealand. This quarterly issue focuses on our long-term strategy, Archives 2057, how we are improving our regulatory role through the release of new guidance for the new Information and Records Management Standard, our efforts to preserve our nation’s history through the work of the Film Preservation Laboratory, and a fond farewell to our friend and colleague, Ken Scadden. We also celebrate the achievements of our staff, and take a look at a collection that has been used in an international exhibition. Nāku noa ngā Marilyn
Marilyn Little FeedbackYou may have ideas for how we could improve this newsletter. Please send us your feedback. Archives 2057Many of you will already know that we are currently seeking submissions on our Archives 2057 discussion document. This is the first major step in developing a long-term strategy for Archives New Zealand. The national archive needs to be focused on the long term to ensure the record of government is available in the future. As we face the challenges of the born-digital era, our performance as a regulator now has a major impact on the government’s information assets into the future. The challenges will impact information managers, iwi, researchers, academics, community archivists, and our own staff. During the week of 10 – 14 October 2016, a series of roadshows were held across the country, which covered the three strategic focus areas and the associated questions. The three strategic focus areas are:
Our Wellington session for records and information management professionals was over-subscribed, and we had to close off the RSVPs a day out! The hum in each of the sessions as the issues were discussed was a good indicator of the level of engagement, and it was great to hear! Thank you to those of you who were able to attend one of the sessions. Your ideas and feedback are crucial to help us develop our long-term strategy and we strongly encourage everyone to share their views and input into the future of our national archive. The consultation period closes at 5 pm on 4 November 2016. You can make a submission through the consultation website www.govt.nz/Archives2057 or by emailing us at archives2057@dia.govt.nz
Government RecordkeepingNew Information and records management standardIn the July issue of Ngā Tapuwae, we reported on the new Information and records management standard that had just been released as a core component of making our regulatory performance more effective. The new standard and accompanying material was well received. The Chief Archivist sent the standard to chief executives of all public offices and local authorities covered by the Public Records Act (except schools, who are a separate work stream), asking them to nominate an Executive Sponsor. Executive Sponsors are people who have an organisation-wide influence, and an ability to liaise closely with organisational decision makers. They understand how to promote and encourage information and records management in the organisation. We have received a good response to these requests, with only a few follow ups required. Next month, the Chief Archivist will begin Archives New Zealand’s programme of engagement with Executive Sponsors. We won’t be able to get to everyone in the first month, but will roll out a programme to ensure that we meet with every Executive Sponsor. Our October release of new material contains another batch of new, refreshed and reviewed guidance. The new release focuses on two areas central to our processes – access and disposal. On access, we have clarified and restated the Chief Archivist’s view on when there might be a good reason for a public office to restrict access. On disposal, we’ve revamped the guidance on disposal authorisation, sentencing and transfer. Several of our forms have been upgraded and we’ve also issued GDA6 and GDA7 in a format that may be easier to apply. Of greatest long-term significance in the October release is the news that we are looking for organisations to partner with on digital transfers. Two fact sheets outline our operating models for digital transfers and the characteristics we require for digital transfers. While we’re not claiming to have figured out all the challenges of digital transfers, we have sufficient capability to get going on it. Our working assumption is that public offices will find that they need to do a fair amount of work to prepare for transfers, and we need partners who are willing and able to do that work. The systems’ capability will grow with every transfer we complete. Please contact us at rkadvice@dia.govt.nz if your public office is interested. Work is underway for the next release of guidance, to go out before the Christmas break. We intend for this to include updated digitisation guidance, and we will be seeking out some assistance to test what we’re proposing before it’s launched.
Holdings & DiscoveryFilm Preservation LaboratoryThe Film Preservation Laboratory has now copied 1198 reels, consisting of 589 picture reels and 609 sound reels, from their original acetate and nitrate film stock onto polyester based stock. Copying the existing master material onto polyester based film stock allows longevity of up to several hundred years. During August, the lab team tested 35 mm black and white picture reels, and are now successfully copying them, as well as 16 mm colour picture materials. We now have 1780 reels still to be copied. Amongst the many titles we are currently preserving is The Governor. Produced by the National Film Unit in 1977, The Governor was a thematic six part series that examined the life of Governor George Grey, the two-time governor and later Premier of New Zealand, that set out to shatter the image of the ‘Good Governor Grey’. Image: George Henare as Hone Heke signing the Treaty of Waitangi in The Governor - The Reverend Traitor (Episode One). Image credit: Dominion Post The series was screened on TV One in 1977, and was New Zealand television’s first historical blockbuster, attracting ‘test match sized’ audiences, and winning the 1978 Feltex Award for Best Drama. It was also hugely controversial, provoking Prime Minister Rob Muldoon to call for a Parliamentary Inquiry into the cost of the production (some $1.4 million/$9.4 million in 2015 currency). The series was shown for a second time in 1978, during the Bastion Point occupation and a growing Pākehā awareness of historical Māori injustices.
Regional NewsEarly Chinese Immigration to OtagoIt is sometimes unexpected where reproductions of documents from our collections are used, and it is certainly not limited to New Zealand! Several months ago, a researcher in the Archives New Zealand Dunedin Office was working her way through the Certificates of Registration under the Immigration Restriction Acts. Their quest was for a document representative of the Chinese who travelled to New Zealand in the early 1900s, the image to be reproduced in an exhibition in Beijing, and possibly in a book that will be published as part of this. The exhibition, titled 1842 – 2016: A Photographic Introduction to the history of the Chinese in New Zealand opens this month in the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China, in Beijing. The exhibition may also be travelling to New Zealand next year. The document chosen by the researcher [pictured] depicts Wong Git Way, who was born in Canton in 1897 and had been living in New Zealand since 1920. Along with the name of the immigrant, most receipts contain a formal photograph, or fingerprints, their age, place of origin, the date they were receipted, the name of the ship on which they arrived and the port they arrived at, and their Poll Tax record number. Image: Poll Tax Certificate for Wong Git Way [Archives Reference: DADF 19064 D429] The Chinese Immigrants Act 1881 introduced a ‘poll tax’ of £10 per Chinese immigrant. For each ten tons of cargo that arrived in New Zealand, ships were allowed to land one Chinese passenger. By 1896, the ration was reduced to one passenger per 200 tons, and the tax increased to £100. All travellers, Chinese or other, had to complete certificates of registration issued by the Collector of Customs. There were two copies of each certificate: one was held by the traveller; the other kept by the collector. When a traveller sought re-entry to New Zealand, the photograph or fingerprints with the certificate were used to establish their identity. As well as permitting re-entry, the system exempted those who had already paid the poll tax from having to pay it again when they returned to the country. While the certificate books are a reminder of New Zealand's less than perfect past, they are also a valuable resource for genealogists and for the descendants of Chinese immigrants today. Often, the photograph attached to the receipt is the only surviving image of their relation. There are at least 1,200 of these certificates held in our Dunedin Office, and more in our other offices. For Dunedin, our early connections to China make these a significant part of the story that is told by Dunedin and Otago repositories. The city holds many collections documenting early Chinese migration to this area; being represented in a significant exhibition will no doubt increase exploration of these.
Other news2016 Michael Standish PrizeOur own Jared Davidson, Research Archivist, was awarded the Michael Standish Prize for his essay The Colonial Continuum: Archives, Access and Power, which was published in the April 2015 edition of Archifacts. This award, first offered in 2001, is named in honour of Michael Standish, architect of the 1957 Archives Act and the first permanent Chief Archivist of National Archives. The prize recognises an outstanding essay, by a New Zealand archivist or records manager, dealing with some facet of archives or records administration, history, theory and/or methodology, and published in a recognised archives, records management, or other appropriate journal. The prize winning essay draws on work with Māori iwi and hapū groups to address settler colonialism and its continuing impact on records creation, archival access, and knowledge production, arguing that archivists should address the way our institutions are organised, both spatially and structurally, and our obligations under te Tiriti o Waitangi. You can read the essay here.
Ken ScaddenIt is with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of Ken Scadden on 17 October. Ken served in many roles here at Archives New Zealand throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. He was appointed to the position of Cartographic Archivist in October 1982 having previously worked as an Assistant Archivist Officer at Trade and Industry from December 1979. Ken was later appointed to Acting Senior Archivist, Regions and Projects in 1988, and then Assistant Director prior to leaving Archives New Zealand in 1989 to take up his appointment as Director of the Wellington Maritime Museum (now Wellington Museum). Ken held a BA (Hons) from Victoria University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Information Management from the University of New South Wales, and was also a Certified Archivist by the Society of American Archivists. Ken’s prominence in the archival world over several decades is such that many archivists today will have worked with him or learned from him at some stage. Ken’s passion in caring for archives and taonga continued after he left Archives New Zealand, and he was always available to support and provide advice to people in the community with archival management. Our thoughts are with Ken’s partner Wendy, the wider family, and with Ken’s brother Brian, our colleague in the Film Preservation Lab. Kai te heke nga roimata mou e te rangatira. Tenei te tuku mihi, te tuku aroha kia Wendy me te whānau o Ken, e noho mai ana i raro i te kapua pōuri. Kia kaha kia manawanui.
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