Download a text-only version of Ngā Tapuwae

Archives New Zealand has achieved some important milestones this year, and some are recorded in this issue of Ngā Tapuwae.

Significant work has been undertaken to put and make the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition searchable online. I have been able to check for the names of my relatives and I urge you to have a go too. In addition to this, people are invited to record their own comments, adding value to the ongoing search history.

Recent visitors to our Mulgrave Street building include the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Peter Dunne, who was delighted to find out more information about his great-grandmother who signed the Suffrage Petition.

Earlier this year, jointly with the New Zealand Film Archive, we opened the nitrate film archive. This gives us a greater ability to take care of important early films that are becoming unstable, and which, as a result, require specific environmental conditions.

Some important records have recently come into the archives, including a Chatham Island’s magistrate’s journal from the late 1800s, and I am pleased to see Samoa’s German colonial records have been digitised so they are easier to search on Archway. 

Making the collection more available continues to be a driver for us, and loaning one of Archives major art works to Victoria University enables more people, specifically students, to reflect on this significant John Drawbridge mural.

Since stepping into the role of Chief Archivist I met with the Archives Council and made trips to Christchurch and Dunedin to see firsthand the archival and recordkeeping work being delivered by Archives staff.

I am looking forward to meeting clients and friends of Archives New Zealand at the Ministerial launch of the new recordkeeping standard and appraisal statement in early May.

Associated with this, the State of Government Recordkeeping and Audit Report 2011-12, showing that information management and recordkeeping is strengthening in New Zealand, will be tabled in Parliament during the next few months.

Nāku noa nga

Marilyn

A strong contingent of Archives New Zealand people, who worked on the Suffrage Petition project, attended the celebration. From left to right: Senior Archivist David Sanderson, Archivist Lillie Le Dorrè, Preservation Collection Manager Diana Coop, Senior Archivist Tony Connell and Archivist Jeff Carr.

A project to bring the history of the women who signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition to life culminated with the launch of the new online database at an event in Wellington last month.

Held on 7 March, the eve of International Women's Day, the launch highlighted the joint role of Archives New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH) in making the database and newly digitised images of the Petition available online.

Margaret Parbhu, Manager Description and Discovery, says the project, two years in the making, is a great example of what can be achieved by team work within Archives – involving Collection Care, Archives Online and Description and Discovery, coupled with the collaboration of MCH.

“With 546 sheets to the Petition and in excess of 23,000 signatures, it’s been an incredible journey to list and double-check all the detail to make them searchable,” she said. “The new digitised version is, as a result, more accurate.”

During the course of the work some names were ‘discovered’ – that is, deciphered for the first time, and thanks to modern technology some corrections have been made. Coupled with this, additional information recorded on the backs is now readily available, as are the location details of where the Petition was signed.

Hosted on the New Zealand History Online website, the database is searchable by name, suburb and town. City and region fields have been added to provide consistent information about the signatories’ location. For example, you can search for Kate Sheppard on the main sheet and find out more information about her by clicking on the link.

People are encouraged to provide further information about their ancestors and send this to info@nzhistory.net.nz so it can be authenticated and added to the database.

Key facts – then …

A number of petitions were presented to both Houses of Parliament from the early 1880s till 1893.  What we know is that the Suffrage Petition existed in two versions; one was presented to the Upper House (Legislative Council) and the other to the Lower House (House of Representatives).

On 19 September 1893 when Governor Glasgow signed the Electoral Bill, New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world where women had won the right to vote.

And now…

The images and their various versions take up 521GB of disk space. The largest image is just shy of 15,000 pixels long and takes up 224MB in its original state.

The event

Ripeka Evans, Pou Ārahi Whakahaere, Strategic Māori Adviser, MCH, spoke about the history of women and the Petition and the work the two agencies, supported by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs,  have done to develop the online searchable database – a digitised version of the Suffrage Petition submitted to Parliament in 1893.

On his recent visit to Archives New Zealand, the Minister of Internal Affairs Hon Peter Dunne discusses preservation of the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition with Conservator Ronnie Pace and Preservation Technician Caroline Garratt.

Significant preservation work has been a natural spin-off to the digitisation process for the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition, says Collection Care Manager Diana Coop.

“This has enabled us to update the document’s Condition Report and start putting the Petition back into one roll,” Diana says.

“It had always been understood that when the Suffrage Petition was prepared for its 100th Anniversary Exhibition in 1993, that it was fully rejoined into one sheet. However, when the digitisation work began, we discovered the Petition was in a number of random lengths.

“We worked with the Description and Discovery team to uncover whether or not there was any significance for this. We found there was no logical reason and together agreed they should be re-joined.  We then began the time-consuming work of rejoining the pieces.”

Diana says the document’s pages have been joined with conservation grade repair paper colour matched to the original document and then gradually rolled into one document. Having one roll is also better for the document, as it improves its physical support.

“Loose sheets are not easy to roll, and this could also damage the document,” Diana says.

“The updated Condition Report and treatment will help us ensure it’s kept in the best environment, helping us to safeguard the Petition for the future,” she says. “And of course, now it’s digitised, many more people are able to see this important document online any time.”

Seeing his great grandmother’s name on the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition was a highlight for Mr Dunne. Sharing the moment, from left to right, Manager Archives Online Alan Ferris, Chief Archivist Marilyn Little and Ministerial Advisor Fraser Seifert.

Internal Affairs Minister Hon Peter Dunne says the highlight of his visit to Archives New Zealand was, ‘to see what appears to be my great gran’s signature on Kate Shepherd’s Women’s Suffrage Petition’.

Summing up his recent visit to Archives’ Wellington office in a tweet, Mr Dunne clearly enjoyed the opportunity to check out his ancestors and also find out more about his Khandallah stomping ground.

Hosted by Chief Archivist and General Manager Marilyn Little, Mr Dunne took the time to meet staff and hear about their work. He then went on to relish an archival show and tell.

Mr Dunne noted the ‘extraordinary patient work’ being achieved in the laboratory to preserve fragile archives. He talked to staff responsible for the transfer of his Ministerial papers.  He then checked out the 19th century digitisation and listing work, before meeting the Archives Online team who aim to get requested material online within a six-hour timeframe. His next stop was the Reading Room, where he saw some of his great grandfather’s papers as well an early 1894 view of Khandallah before visiting the Constitution Room to see the 1840 Tiriti o Waitangi.

“The Minister clearly enjoyed his time with us and was impressed by the scope and depth of our work,” said Marilyn Little.

“Being able to show him archives of a personal nature was clearly a high spot – giving real meaning to the visit and attesting to what archives is all about.  His genuine interest in Archives is reflected in the fact he has paid us a visit just a month into his busy portfolio.”

Lynne Reed with her film lab colleagues (from left) Lloyd Woodford, Chris Dent, and Mark Taylor.

Archives New Zealand’s Lynne Reed has been recognised for her service to the film industry by taking the ‘Unsung Heroine of the NZ Screen Industry’ Award at the 2014 Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Awards.

Film Archivist Colour Grader Lynne has spent some 25 years in the industry, grading more than 70 feature films and numerous documentaries, short films and commercials.

The award acknowledges Lynne’s outstanding work in guiding filmmakers through the colour grading process, formerly at the National Film Unit (NFU) and more recently at Park Road Post Productions.

“I had no idea that I would win my category,” says Lynne. “I was delighted and honoured to have even been nominated – and to be in a room with so many talented people from the film industry.

“During the evening I talked to many attendees about the future of our Archives New Zealand film lab. And the journey from its beginnings at The Tin Shed in Thorndon through to The National Film Unit, on to Park Road Post and later this year, its reopening at Archives.

“Soon, the four of us (the film lab team) with a combined total of more than 100 years’ industry experience will be privileged to help with the continuing path of this important national treasure,” she said.

With the news last year that Park Road Post’s film laboratory was to close, an initiative was put in place for Archives to re-site the plant at its Wellington office.Building is expected to start in the next few months.

At the opening, from left to right, Archives New Zealand’s Geoff Shepherd, Preservation Technician and Ronnie Pace, Conservator, New Zealand Film Archive Chief Executive Frank Stark, and Tony Moss, Director Client Capability, Archives New Zealand.

With a spectacular sunrise in the background, Archives New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Archive officially opened New Zealand’s first specialised nitrate film vault on Friday, 28 February.

Based in Titahi Bay, Porirua, the new 100 square metre vault is shared by both organisations to store nitrocellulose film under optimum preservation conditions.

“The partnership between the Film Archive and Archives New Zealand makes perfect sense,” said Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Hon Christopher Finlayson. “Between them, the two organisations have amassed extensive collections of historic films, including both public and private film records.

“Sharing nitrate film preservation resources will be beneficial to the longevity of both organisations’ collections.”

Director Client Capability Antony Moss said, "As New Zealand’s guardian of the government record we are delighted to have invested in this new purpose-built facility, which will ensure our precious nitrate films are in safe keeping for future generations to enjoy and cherish."

Adding to this, Film Archive Chief Executive Frank Stark said, “Films allow us to relive history crystallised as moving images – they are the past in motion. The new vault will keep these taonga alive and breathing in their original form.”

Fragile film

Nitrocellulose film was the most commonly used film stock in New Zealand, from the birth of film until the end of the 1940s.

However, nitrate film is fragile and needs a high level of care because it is flammable and prone to deterioration over time. The new vault has been designed to prolong the life of nitrate films by slowing down deterioration in a controlled environment.

As well as having built-in safety mechanisms, the vault’s environment is the optium recommended for nitrate film storage: a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, and approximately 40 per cent relative humidity.

What’s in store?

Our nation’s most important film treasures created on nitrate film stock include: the earliest surviving New Zealand film footage, The Departure of the Second Contingent for the Boer War (1900); government publicity films from the 1910s; dozens of our earliest kiwi home movies; groundbreaking New Zealand feature films such as Rudall Hayward’s My Lady of the Cave (1922) and Rewi’s Last Stand (1925); pioneering sound film experiments by Kiwi Jack Welsh; and the Weekly Review series of newsreels produced by the National Film Unit during the 1940s.  Find out more on the Archives New Zealand film site.

Archives Support Assistant Vicki Hawes and Senior Archivist Rosie Ballantyne check out the journal in the Christchurch regional office of Archives New Zealand.

A battered and bruised journal belonging to the resident magistrate on the Chatham Islands, William Thomas, is safely in the care of Archives New Zealand’s Christchurch office after being found during a post-quake cleanup.

Covering the period 1866 to early 1870, the journal includes coverage of the imprisonment and escape of Te Kooti and 168 of his followers on the schooner Rifleman on 4 July 1868, and offers unique and immediate coverage of a contemporary news headline.

Christchurch Regional Archivist Chris Adam says in February this year, staff at the Christchurch High Court asked Archives to inspect some material found in the Court’s basement during the cleanup.

“The journal was by far the oldest and most valuable archive transferred by the local high court in many years,” he says.

“While the report on Te Kooti's escape inevitably grabs our attention, all the daily entries and regular reports are of great interest and will add to our understanding of the Chathams during this period.

“Preservation work will need to be carried out on the journal before it can be made available for public use and it will also be digitised – both to ensure its ongoing conservation and to make it more available to students and historians.”

Archivist Uili Fecteau with the records in the Archives New Zealand stacks, Wellington.

Important records of Samoa’s colonial past, largely invisible for some 50 years, have in a three-year project been digitised, opening up the contents to researchers and historians alike.

German administrative papers from 1900 to 1914 from two locations have been stitched together by Archives New Zealand Archivist Uili Fecteau and provide a fascinating insight into the Imperial German Samoan Administration.

“The papers document the day-to-day activities of the administration with Samoan people in the early 20th century and provide insights into subjects as varied as staff and ‘native’ employees, official dwellings and government buildings and treasury records,” says Uili.

“Trade and communications’ files document immigration and emigration statistics and correspondence between Samoa, Germany, Britain and the United States.

“Some of the gems I have come across include poll tax correspondence, Chinese indentured labour files, probate details for some of Samoa’s notable people, including O.F. Nelson’s father, and excerpts from the personal diary of the last German administrator Dr. Shultz.

“As well as paper files, the records include registers, maps and plans.”

While working on the project has been exciting for Uili, it has also been a challenge as the files are in German and are a mix of digitised and paper records. Those held in Archives New Zealand’s Wellington office haven’t been digitised, while some of the files in Apia had already been digitised as part of a project initiated in 2009 by the German Federal Government.

Uili used the original German file register from 1914 to piece together the jigsaw and create a complete picture of all the records, which have had a chequered history. When the New Zealand Expeditionary Force captured Samoa on behalf of the British Crown in 1914, some of the files were ransacked and others were lost or stored in damp conditions.

The files started coming to New Zealand in 1920 when Dr G H Scholefield found them in a ‘perilous state’ damaged by damp and insects and subject to removal by ‘interested collectors’. In 1955, Mr R G Gilson discovered other files ‘lying derelict in government offices in Apia’ and these were also shipped to Archives New Zealand. Finally, in 1977, more than 140 boxes of flies found in a disused prison cell in Mulunu’u were sent to the O.F. Nelson Library in Apia, Samoa.

For Uili, digitisation is not the end point of archival aspirations in the Pacific.

“While it’s true digitisation helps a wider audience to access the archives, it’s the description and the discoverability of information that enables people to find what they are looking for."

“This is what builds a path to understanding, growth and rediscovery – and a key task for the future,” he says.

Preservation Technician Caroline Garratt, and Martin Kelly from moving firm Te Mahi, with one of the Drawbridge mural panels, prior to its relocation to the Cotton building at the end of March.

A large John Drawbridge artwork, in the care of Archives New Zealand since 1991, has been loaned to Victoria University of Wellington, taking pride of place in the Cotton building.

Entitled New Zealand House Mural, the mural consists of ten panels, each 2.6 metres by 1.5 metres, and was originally commissioned by the New Zealand Government for New Zealand House in London.

Described as conveying a sense of light and movement, Drawbridge said of the work, "the direction of the motion is from left to right, from the Pacific sunrise to nightfall on the quiet, dark Tasman. Between the seas emerge the shapes of beaches, plains and mountains”.

However, he suggests that individuals should respond to the sense of patterns created in their own way and this is just what Preservation Technician Caroline Garratt did when she had the opportunity to see the mural in its entirety for the first time.

“I was familiar with the work only as individual panels and until now had only seen the panels joined together in photos,” she says.

“What struck me when I saw it being installed at the Cotton building was the dynamism between the panels and how the work flows. Although the forms are abstract there are clear references to the New Zealand landscape."

“For me these are to the Canterbury plains, the New Zealand bush and Auckland harbour, but I’m sure someone else’s response would be entirely unique, which is the beauty of this work.

“It’s fantastic people will now have an opportunity to experience the mural as the artist intended."

John Drawbridge

Born in Wellington in 1930, John Drawbridge was assistant lecturer in art at Wellington Teachers’ College from 1954 to 1957. He was awarded a National Art Gallery travelling scholarship in 1957 and studied art at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts.  His work is found in collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum and in private collections throughout the world. He died in 2005.

Norman Kirk. Source: Te Ara.

The Mighty Totara: the Life and Times of Norman Kirk, a book by David Grant, was launched in March this year.  To inform his book, David Grant spent time at Archives New Zealand on his research including the new online exhibition the Kirk Collection.

Norman Eric Kirk (1923-1974) or "Big Norm" as he became known, was a larger than life New Zealand Prime Minister for just two years, from 1972-1974. He died while in office, at the age of 51.

As Norman Kirk's body lay in state near the steps of Parliament on the day after his death on 31 August 1974, a kaumatua lamented – "the mighty totara has fallen".

The Vietnam war, nuclear testing in the Pacific, race relations including deferring the 1973 springbok rugby tour of New Zealand, the Bangladesh war and subsequent humanitarian crisis, are just a few of the issues of the day included in the Kirk Collection exhibition.

Those wanting more information can also check out the link in Archway, the online search engine, to his records.

Recordkeeping and appraisal improvements

The new public sector Records Management Standard and the Appraisal Statement are now available on the Archives New Zealand website. You will also be able to find out more about what they involve, via the wider programme of regulatory work, including up-to-date information, presentations at conferences and events for records and information managers, and training courses.

New Zealand Society of Genealogists conference

Keynote speaker Colleen Fitzpatrick, from California, will talk about her role as a forensic genealogy consultant at the New Zealand Society of Genealogists conference in Wellington over Queen’s Birthday weekend.

Other speakers include Archives New Zealand and National Library staff, with the conference getting underway on Friday 30 May in the National Library Building in Molesworth Street.

UNESCO Memory of the World – call for inscriptions

The UNESCO Memory of the World New Zealand Committee is calling for inscriptions to the New Zealand Memory of the World documentary heritage register for 2014.

The register helps to raise public awareness of the value and significance of documentary heritage and contributes to ensuring New Zealand’s history and stories are not forgotten.

As August 2014 marks 100 years since the beginning of World War One (1914-18), the Memory of the World Committee anticipates submissions for the register will include items of importance to New Zealand during that time.

Submissions to the register close on 31 August 2014 and successful inscriptions will be announced later in the year. To find out more, visit the Memory of the World New Zealand website.

Connecting: Past, Present and Future

Archivists and records managers are invited to the joint Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (ARANZ) and Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) conference being held in Christchurch from 30 September to 3 October.

Take the opportunity to network and find out what others are doing across Australasia at the conference, which has the theme – Connecting: Past, Present and Future.

More than just books

Radio New Zealand’s recently-launched online network, The Wireless, features  Archives New Zealand and National Library staff in its February photo essay: Beyond the books.

Wireless' Assistant Producer Alexander Robertson, who also took the photos, says as custodians of knowledge: “They’re also doing jobs that are evolving with technology, and for some that means data wrangling instead of book stacking. They have to create and innovate.”

Updated daily with new content, The Wireless says its website: "aims to produce inspiring, insightful and entertaining stories for New Zealanders who have grown up in the digital age."

Leading Edge

Wellingtonians and visitors to the capital are welcome to check out the National Library’s Leading Edge exhibition currently running in the Molesworth Street building. The exhibition invites you to look beyond the great idea and the associated public programme looks at Aotearoa both past and present through the lens of innovation.

NDF ambassadors wanted

The National Digital Forum (NDF) is looking for ambassadors around New Zealand to help continue its networking and professional development activities in the regions.

Cloud storage and archives: a match made in heaven?

With the rise in cloud services and storage, archivists are asking whether this can help address a growing digital preservation challenge. Neil Beagrie’s blog discusses this issue.

Getting our Act Together – Public records implementation in Scotland

Implementation of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011 was the subject of the Getting Our Act Together conference held in December 2013. The conference papers are now available on the Scottish Council on Archives' website.

UK National Archives sector leadership report available

In mid 2013, The National Archives commissioned an external, independent review of its leadership of the archive sector two years on from taking over the responsibility from the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council in 2011.  Both the review and the response are available on the National Archive website.