Friends of the Turnbull Library (FoTL)

The Friends of the Turnbull Library (FoTL) is a national organisation, supporting the work and activities of the Alexander Turnbull Library since 1939.

Titiro ki muri kia whakatika ā mua. Preserving the past to enlighten the future.

The Alexander Turnbull Library is a guardian of our heritage, a great research institution serving the general public and scholars in the fields of historical research, literary, cultural and genealogical studies. The Friends of the Turnbull Library promotes public interest in the Library’s collections and supports research and use of its collections.

Our Next Speaker

Wednesday 12 February at 5:30pm
Katie Cooper, Rēwena and Rabbit Stew

Preparing food, however people choose to do so, is surely one of the most vital of all human endeavours. We need food to survive, and for that reason social practices related to food are fundamental in every society
At the same time, food preparation can be mundane and repetitive, and it is such a routine part of our lives that we don’t often stop to consider its cultural significance.

In her 2024 book, Rēwena and Rabbit Stew, Katie Cooper explored how cooking and food practices shaped the daily lives, homes and communities of rural Pākehā and Māori in the 19th and early 20th centuries.In this presentation, she will discuss some of the key themes of the book, using stories and images from the Alexander Turnbull Library collection to delve into cooking technologies, provisions, and the variety of cooking spaces used.

Katie Cooper grew up on a small sheep farm just out of Gore and is the daughter of an agriculture teacher and a history teacher. She completed her PhD in history at the University of Otago, and since 2016 has been a curator at Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand.