Nau mai ki te kawerongo o Ngā Taonga — welcome to our newsletter

We're pleased that our public spaces have reopened, nau mai, haere mai – we'd love to see you again. We have more details below about how you can access our collections in person, or online.

From the blog we share the fascinating tale of how the call of the extinct huia was recorded – it's an amazing and popular post. We also have staff sharing their personal connections to collection items – A Feeling for the Forest and I Want to be Joan.

Our Tumu Whakarae will also give a special kōrero for Matariki.

Public spaces have reopened

We're pleased to announce that our public spaces have reopened after Lockdown and we are delighted to welcome you back. You can browse a huge amount of material at our viewing spaces at the National Library in Wellington and at Medianet partner sites around the country. Our online catalogue also holds an enormous amount of audiovisual content.

Our research team are able to assist if you're hunting for something not immediately accessible. 

Te Karanga a te Huia – The Call of the Huia

Kua rongo anō koe i te karanga o te huia? E kore e tata atu tō rongo i ēnei kapohanga e pōhi nei ki konei. He manu e tino arohia ana, he kaha anō hoki te aro mai ki tēnei rangitaki, kei tā mātou rārangi 10 mō te toro mai. Pānuitia ngā rangahaunga i mōhio ai tātou i pēhea te kapo i te karanga manu korehāhā nei.

Have you heard the call of the huia? The recordings in this post are probably the closest you'll ever come. The huia is an extremely intriguing bird, a fact reflected by this blog post consistently being in our top 10 most-viewed. Read about the detective work that went into solving the mystery of how the recording of an extinct bird's call came to be.

A Feeling for the Forest

I te wā o te noho whakamohoao, i whakapau kaha ngā kaimahi o Ngā Taonga ki te whakarārangi i ngā kōrero maha i te hōtaka reo irirangi o Spectrum. E whai nei ko tētahi tuhinga nā Kahu Kutia, e kōrero ana mō te pūrongo A Feeling for the Forest. Ko te pūrongo nei nā te hōtaka Spectrum, ka whai i ngā kōrero a te kaumātua a Tāwhao Tioke e pā ana ki ngā mahi i te ngahere, te rongoā, me te whakapono. Pānuitia ana kōrero, whakarongo mai ki tēnei pūrongo ātaahua!

Over Lockdown some of our staff undertook a huge project cataloguing hundreds of episodes of the historic Spectrum radio series. One of those cataloguers, Kahu Kutia, wrote about A Feeling for the Forest, which features Tūhoe kaumātua Tawhao Tioke speaking of bushlore, rongoā and faith. Read about what she learned and listen to the complete recordings.

Favourite Collection Items – I Want To Be Joan

We've been asking staff to share their Favourite Collection Items. Collection Developer Siobhán Garrett wrote about 1977's I Want To Be Joan, a feminist documentary from filmmaker Stephanie Beth that looks at the experiences of six Pākehā women. Garrett describes what the film means to her and its resonance to a capacity crowd at an Auckland screening.

Taunaha Whenua – Naming the Land

Learn about the names used by Wellington mana whenua and what they can tell us about the historic uses of places in the region. 'There’s been a resurgence,' speaker Honiana Love says, 'with old names coming out of the landscape'. Discover the link to the past in place names including Pipitea, Owhiro and Kaitoa, and hear about areas that were traditionally gardens, food gathering areas, refuse and swamps.

Thursday 16 July at 12:30pm at the National Library, Wellington.

This kōrero is a free event to mark this year’s celebration of Matariki and is a joint presentation between Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, the National Library and Wellington City Libraries. Nau mai, haere mai, all welcome.

• Railway enthusiasts were recently delighted to hear the compiled recordings of the 1937 opening of Wellington Railway Station.
• We shared Barry Barclay's The Kaipara Affair with Scotland's Folk Film Gathering and it was viewed hundreds of times by virtual attendees around the world.
• This endearingly clunky 1987 educational video about STIs was a hit on our Facebook page. Some remembered watching it in class and others enjoyed the funky theme song and extended arcade game metaphor.

• Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival will be At Home – Online, running 24 July to 2 August. Their full programme, selectors and judges have been announced.
• NZ On Screen looked back at some of the top moments from 60 years of television and asked viewers to vote for their favourite. Can you guess which late-night classic took top spot?
• In our next issue we will be sharing two important policy updates – Tiakina, the Kaitiaki Relationship Framework and a new Depositor Agreement – both designed to help us serve New Zealanders better. 

Are there things you'd like to read about, or do you have suggestions for how we present our newsletter? Your feedback is always welcome – please email us.