UNESCO honours early NZ oral and written heritage items   1 Dec 2014

New Zealand’s first book, oral history recordings that survived the Christchurch earthquakes and early 19th century missionary records have been listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World New Zealand register of documentary heritage.

The Memory of the World New Zealand Trust Chair Dianne Macaskill said, “the Trust is delighted to welcome these new inscriptions onto the register. These three are valuable records of written and spoken English and Maori in New Zealand, with some pre-dating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Each of these collections greatly contributes to our nation’s heritage and to the identity of New Zealanders. It is through the care of their holding institutions that these collections are accessible to us today.”

A Korao no New Zealand, or, The New Zealander’s first book, the New Zealand Oral History collection 1946-1948, recorded by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service’s Mobile Unit, and Dr Thomas Morland Hocken’s Church Missionary Society Records (1808-c.1900) are valuable sources of research for historians, researchers, educators and many others in the wider community.

UNESCO recognition draws attention to the significance of documentary heritage and the institutions that are their custodians. Inscription on the register raises awareness of the custodian’s institutions and helps ensure the inscribed items are protected, preserved and accessible.

NZ’s first book

Auckland Museum Director Collections & Research, David Reeves, says “we’re thrilled A Korao no New Zealand has been added to the New Zealand Memory of the World Register. Particularly for 2015, as this will be the bi-centenary of the publication.

“The conservation and preservation of this piece of documentary heritage has been in the collections of Auckland Museum since 1894.”

The Auckland Museum’s document - also known as the New Zealander's first book: being an attempt to compose some lessons for the instruction of the natives - is the first printed publication in Maori and the only known extant copy.

“Its importance has grown with time and with better understanding of early Maori responses to European contact, as it is tangible evidence of Maori interacting with British missionaries and administration. Despite historical and popular focus being on the period of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, this publication is a pivotal document surviving from some 25 years before the Treaty was signed, which is why we’re delighted it has received this recognition,” David Reeves said.

Oral histories

The New Zealand Oral History collection 1946-1948 is a preeminent collection of broadcast oral histories recorded around regional New Zealand after the Second World War by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service’s Mobile Unit. It is now cared for by Nga Taonga Sound & Vision, New Zealand's national audiovisual archive.

Frank Stark, Nga Taonga Sound & Vision Chief Executive says, “we are thrilled that the New Zealand Oral History collection 1946-1948 has been inscribed on the New Zealand/Aotearoa Memory of the World Register. These recordings, in both English and Te Reo Maori, contain eye-witness accounts of New Zealand life reaching back as far as the 1850s. They are a crucial part of all New Zealanders’ shared cultural inheritance and we are committed to preserving them for future generations.”

Recollections of the Taranaki Wars, aspects of Maori culture, the origin of the frozen meat trade, the first thistle and first rabbits seen in Otago, the Chinese miners’ use of opium, the first bicycle which frightened horses and the coming of electric power, are among the hundreds of interviews contained in the collection.

The collection, along with all other collection items, was successfully recovered from the archives former building in Christchurch after it was damaged in the major 2011 Canterbury earthquake. The recovery operation – led by Radio New Zealand, archive staff and industry volunteers – took several months of planning and execution. The Nga Taonga Sound & Vision archive is now fully operational in its temporary Christchurch premises, and in the middle of an important major project to digitise its collections.

Dr Hocken’s CMS collection

The Church Missionary Society archives are one of the foundation collections of Dunedin’s Hocken Library.

Hocken Librarian Sharon Dell says the inscription draws attention to the depth of the Hocken collections and their national significance.

“It makes us very proud to be the caretakers of such iconic collections.”

“The documents were acquired by Dr Thomas Hocken himself and it is a mark of his persuasive personality that the Church Missionary Society allowed him to bring them back to New Zealand.”

The archive charts the establishment of the Church Missionary Society mission in New Zealand along with the establishment of the first settlements and mission stations. At its core are the letters and journals of Samuel Marsden, but there are the letters and journals of many other of the missionary settlers in New Zealand and their correspondence with the Society.

“The archive is fundamental to understanding New Zealand history as this was the first deliberate European settlement and the first sustained interaction between Maori and Pakeha. So it’s very influential in the development of Aotearoa into the nation we know today.

“For us the inscription on the New Zealand Register is wonderful news since it highlights the archive and makes more people aware of its existence. Not many
people know that it is at Hocken, or would think to look to Dunedin for material relating to the Bay of Islands. But it is typical of Hocken’s interests that he should have sought it out and secured it,” Sharon Dell said.

UNESCO launched the Memory of the World Programme in 1992. It sits alongside UNESCO’s better-known World Heritage List and Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Memory of the World register is the Programme’s flagship and promotes the value and safekeeping of documentary heritage. The New Zealand Programme was established in 2010. Further information about Memory of the World and the inscriptions on the register can be viewed on www.unescomow.org.nz.

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