Past Front Porch Gallery Archives - Page 2 of 6

Family History Month

SHOWING IN THE GALLERY FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2023 – FAMILY HISTORY MONTH

CELEBRATE FAMILY HISTORY MONTH WITH RURU, YOUR TUI & TAMA CLUB MASCOT FRIEND!

For the month of August we have activities, exhibitions and crafty arty workshops supporting whakawhanaungatanga – relationship connections with family. To support our community to start, refresh or research family connections we have a FREE Ancestry Library subscription available for visitors to use at the Te Awamutu Museum – Education & Research Centre at 55 Rickit Road, Te Awamutu.

When you first delve into Ancestry.com, the world’s largest subscription collection of genealogy databases, it can be a bit mind-boggling. After all, Ancestry.com encompasses thousands of collections with more than 30 billion historical records at last count. Subscribers can access all available US census records, from 1790 through to 1950 census, along with many Canadian, English and Welsh enumerations.

In addition, the centre is offering a FREE self scanning archival digitisation service. Researchers. avid historians, or collectors can book in time to use an overhead and flatbed scanner. The overhead scanner is great for hand written diaries, scapbooks and legal documents, whilst the flatbed scanner can digitise film negatives, slides and letters.

During the month of August centre staff are offering one-on-one overview on how to use Ancestry and give you a few tips on what you can achieve with your research. These one hour slots are bookable on Tuesday or Thursday between 10am-12pm by either phoning the centre on 07 872 0085 or emailing museum@waipadc.govt.nz. Please book quickly as these bookings will fill up.

Don’t worry, these two amazing FREE services will continue as long as the community uses it.

Matariki 2023

SHOWING IN THE GALLERY FOR THE MONTH OF JULY 2023 – MATARIKI

Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades. It rises in the east midwinter and heralds in the start of Te Tau Hou, the Māori New Year!

Iwi across Aotearoa understand and celebrate Matariki in their special ways, for example some iwi acknowledge seven and some nine stars. Every iwi is unique in its rituals, ceremonies and celebrations. The things we do similarly around the time of Matariki is to prepare mara kai, plant trees, share kai, and be together to remember loved ones passed.

In 2022, Matariki became an official public holiday in Aotearoa. Te Sure mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki 2022 – Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Act 2022 came into effect in April 2022. It is the first public holiday in Aotearoa to recognise te ao Māori!

Mānawatia a Matariki website was launched to share kōrero about this special time, events happening nationally, stories, news and resources. It’s a great place to get started on how to celebrate Matariki. The theme for 2023 is ‘Matariki Kāinga Hokia – Matariki calls you home. It is encouraged to return to your whānau and their people, wherever and whoever that might be to journey back home and celebrate, feast and be with whānau and friends.

It is also underpinned with an important environmental message – re-connect with your maunga, awa, moana and whenua. It is our responsibility to take care of the places we all call home.

Here in the Waikato most iwi acknowledge seven stars – Matariki, Waitī, Waitā, Waipun-a-rangi, Tupuānuku and Ururangi. Each has their own specific attribute:

Matariki – signifies reflection, hope, our connection to te taiao the environment. It highlights the health and well-being of us all.

Waitī – associated with all freshwater like awa, roto, puna, etc and the kai sources that are sustained by them.

Waitā – associated with te moananui-a-kiwa the ocean and the food sources within it.

Waipuna-ā-rangi – the tear of Rangi – the rain.

Tupuānuku – connects us with mara kai – everything that is grown in the soil to be harvested or gathered.

Ururangi – connects us to the winds.

Come on in and learn more about our special Aotearoa holiday coming up 14th July 2023!

Click here to go to the Mānawatia instagram

Click here to go to the Matariki ki Waikato website

Rangiaowhia

Rangiaowhia, a small journey east of Te Awamutu, was a thriving and productive village, until 1864. From the 1830s Māori and invited European settlers worked collaboratively to develop this into one of the regions most important agricultural areas. One of the most significant relationships that nurtured property for both Māori and settlers was between Rahapa Te Hauata and Thomas Power.

This exhibition shares personal whānau accounts about life in Rangiaowhia during 1800s up until the British Invasion into the Waikato 1864. It also highlights letters sent by Thomas Power and Rahapa to Governor Grey 1865, expressing dismay at the soldiers treatment of the locales and compensation. A powerful story which whānau members today have instilled in their memories.

The following is an extract from one of the exhibition panels about Thomas Power, set down by his son-in-law Thomas Moisley in 1938:

“In 1845 Sir George Grey sent Mr T Power to instruct the natives in agriculture and he made Rangiaowhia his headquarters. He brought down from Auckland horses, drays and ploughs, harrows and cows. The first of these any sorts of implements in the Waikato. They used to bring goods up the Waipa River as far as the pun then up the pun River as far as what was the Ford Redoubt in the later years.

Each settlement around Rangiaowhia and Pukeatua at that time was divided by a row of peach trees to mark their boundaries. That is how Rangiaowhia got such a name for peaches which were very luxurious in those days.”

This photograph of Rahapa is a copy from an original Tin-type, also known as Ferro-type. The photograph is made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with dark lacquer or enamel – which holds the photographic emulsion. This type of photograph was popular during 1860s-1870s.

New Zealand Land Wars

“E hoa! Ka whahwai tonu mātou, mō Ake, Ake Ake!”

When called upon to surrender by the British Troops at Ō-rākau Pā in 1864, Rewi Maniapoto uttered those famous words translated into English – “Friend! We will fight on for ever and ever!” Ō-rākau Pā was sacked 2nd April 1864, the last of a trail of battles littered across the Waipā district between February – April 1864 by British soldiers. These events at Ō-rākau were largely unknown until a monument was erected at the Pā site in 1914 for Māori heroism, 50 years after the siege. Since then the most prominent memorial event was held in the Waipā at Ō-rākau in 2014, 150 years after the sacking of the pā. Local and national interest grew to ensure local history be included in the education curriculum. In 2017, students from the Ōtorohanga High School, sought through a public petition, to have local history taught in schools with the main aim to create a day of remembrance of the New Zealand Land Wars.

On the Front Porch Gallery this month highlights He Rā Maumahara: National commemoration of the New Zealand Land Wars. The flag created to highlight this event in the Waipā reminds locals and visitors of this incredible time in history. On show are projected images of the graphic novel as seen on Te Ara Wai Journeys, archival photographs and objects from the Museum collection pertaining to the 1863-1864 Waikato Wars. In the display case is a map and ephemera from past commemorations held at Ō-rākau.

For more information on He Rā Maumahara, and Waikato Wars click the links below:

New Zealand Government

NZ History online

Te Ara Wai Journeys

Front Porch Gallery

October 2022

Te Wiki o Te Reo 2022

Nau Mai, Haere Mai ki te Whare Taonga o Te Awamutu!

Join us for the month of September as we take this opportunity to celebrate, promote and encourage Te Reo Māori during Māori language week.

On the Front Porch Gallery we have chosen amazing and unique taonga objects from the Museum collection to project, and added their Māori kupu word for each item. We also have some great whānau activities to help with your introduction to, or learning of, te reo Māori.

If you’d like some resources and information about Te Wiki o Te Reo click here!

Front Porch Gallery

12th September – 1st October 2022

PUNCH

PUNCH: COMING HOME

Promoted at the Regent Theatre around the screening of the film Punch and featuring Te Awamutu born writer, designer and director Dr. Welby Inges’ preparatory sketches for the film.

“The rough sketches in pencil, ink and coffee granules were made either before writing the screenplay for PUNCH or in pre-production while attempting to ‘feel’ the spirit of the world the film was going to inhabit.

They were recorded in notebooks, or on old scraps of paper. In some instances they contain flickers of possibly storylines, potential dialogue or the ‘poetic spirit’ of the scene I was intending to shoot.

There are literally hundreds of such drawings that go into any film I make, because I draw the whole world of a story before I commit anything to writing. If I run into trouble while shooting, I return to drawing as a method of ‘feeling’ my way through a problem.”

WELBY INGS

The exhibition of these amazing sketches will be showing on the Front Porch Gallery 1st – 10th September 2022.