WEDNESDAY 24 JULY, 5.30 pm
Associate Professor Kealani Cook:
The Imaginary Samoan that lives in the Colonial Mind
In this talk Kealani Cook will discuss aspects of the Samoan Mau movement in the context of his research examining non-violent civil disobedience movements across Oceania.
In the late 1920s through the 1930s, the Mau movement challenged and at times negated the ability of the New Zealand colonial administration to rule over Sāmoa. This presentation examines some of the internal documentation which colonial administrators used to shape and perpetuate imaginary visions of the Samoan people. These “Imaginary Samoans” served to justify the administration’s presence and repressive actions while denying the strength and legitimacy of the Mau movement. Policies shaped around these imaginary Samoans rather than real ones led to a persistent inability to comprehend the Mau and the persistent failure of attempts to end the Mau.
About the speaker
Kealani Cook is Associate Professor in the Humanities Division, University of Hawaiʻi-West Oʻahu, Kapolei, and author of Return to Kahiki: Native Hawaiians in Oceania (Cambridge University Press, 2018). In 2024 he was the recipient of a Travel Grant from the Friends of the Turnbull Library, His research project is a comparative history examining non-violent civil disobedience movements across Oceania. He plans to write a book bringing together four such movements: the Parihaka campaign of peaceful resistance, the Samoan Mau movement, the Maʻasina Ruru movement, and Operation Homecoming at Kwajalein Atoll.
Thursday 27 June 2024, 6pm
FoTL Founder Lecture: Dame Claudia Orange on The Treaty of Waitangi
The annual Friends of the Turnbull Library Founder Lecture is held on or near the 28 June to commemorate and celebrate the official opening of the Alexander Turnbull Library on 28 June 1920.
This year esteemed historian and author Dame Claudia Orange DNZM OBE CRSNZ delivered the 2024 Founder Lecture, reflecting on her four-decade career of Te Tiriti o Waitangi scholarship, beginning with her doctoral thesis, The Treaty of Waitangi: A Study of its Making, Interpretation and Role in New Zealand History in 1984. Dame Claudia discussed recent research on Te Tiriti, and the impact and influence of the Waitangi Tribunal. She also commented on potential threats to 50 years of advancing Māori/Crown relationships.
Dame Claudia Orange DNZM OBE CRSNZ
After publishing her award-winning history The Treaty of Waitangi in 1987, which won ‘Book of the Year’ at the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards in 1988, Dame Claudia became General Editor of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, released in five volumes with the Māori biographies also in te reo Māori (now online).
A director at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa for many years, and later research associate, Dame Claudia has received many awards and honours for her contribution to a wider understanding of our history, including research for the He Tohu and Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi exhibitions. In 2021, she was awarded the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Literary Achievement (Non-fiction).
TUESDAY 11 JUNE 2024, 5.30PM
Richard Hill & Steven Loveridge: Vignettes from Wellington’s Secret History
Spies, seditionists, and state surveillance
In 1900, a handful of New Zealand police detectives watched out for spies, seditionists and others who might pose a threat to state and society. The Police Force remained the primary instrument of such human intelligence in New Zealand until 1956 when, a decade into the Cold War, a dedicated Security Service was created.
In this talk Richard Hill and Steven Loveridge explored some of their experiences in researching the elusive and murky history of security intelligence for their recently published book Secret History: State Surveillance in New Zealand, 1900–1956 (Auckland University Press, 2023). They drew attention to some sites around Wellington linked to local spycraft — including some close to the Turnbull Library.
The first of two volumes chronicling the history of state surveillance in New Zealand, Secret History opens up the ‘secret world’ of security intelligence through to 1956.
Richard Hill has written four books on the history of policing in New Zealand and two on Crown–Māori relations in the 20th century. He is a Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and Emeritus Professor at the Stout Research Centre for NZ Studies where, among other things, he runs the Security and Surveillance Project.
Steven Loveridge is an historian whose research focuses upon governance, security intelligence, and war and society. Besides Secret History, his recent publications include the co-authored The Home Front, an authoritative examination of New Zealand’s society during World War I; and content within New Zealand’s Foreign Service and Histories of Hate.
6PM, WEDNESDAY 12 JUNE 2024 – AUCKLAND EVENT
Cristina Sanders: ‘Historical Fiction – a Plausible Truth?’
Held at Takapuna Library, 9 The Strand
6pm Wednesday 12 June 2024
Cristina spoke about researching her recent book, “Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant”.
Thursday 30 May, 5.30pm – Atl event
Book Launch – ‘Pressing On: The Story of New Zealand Newspapers, 1921 – 2000’
Masterton-based historian and publisher Ian F Grant completed work on the second volume of his history of newspapers in New Zealand while he was the Turnbull Library’s Adjunct Scholar.
Following on from the acclaimed first volume, Lasting Impressions in October 2018, this second book documents the major changes in the newspaper industry; from the early 1920s when newspapers were profitable and well respected, through to 2000 when the market had changed drastically and survival of newspapers was no longer secure.
Pressing On tells the story of the way that radio, television and the internet created a new environment that challenged and disrupted the formerly successful commercial model. On RNZ National’s MediaWatch on Sunday 23 June there was an interview with Ian Grant.
Published by Fraser Books in association with the Alexander Turnbull Library.
wednesday 15 mAY 2024
Norman Meehan: Jenny McLeod, Tracing Threads
Speech notes and links now available: Jenny McLeod_Tracing Threads [Turnbull Library]
New Zealand composer Jenny McLeod’s music is wildly eclectic, ranging from electro-pop soundtracks for children’s television shows, to austere chamber music; from challenging art song cycles in te reo Māori, to simple hymns for congregational singing; from solo piano pieces for beginners, to elaborate works for multiple choirs and bespoke orchestras. Her personal life was equally varied and complex. In this talk, McLeod’s biographer Norman Meehan discussed some of the challenges of piecing that story together, a narrative mixing his extensive interviews and correspondence with McLeod, with a wide range of other sources, including many found in the Turnbull Library.
Norman is a Wellington-based musician and writer. His publications have primarily considered jazz and art music in Aotearoa. His most recent book Jenny McLeod: A Life in Music is published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. Norman also enjoys active collaborations with singer Hannah Griffin, and saxophonist Hayden Chisholm. Their music is published by Rattle Records.
Photo of Norman Meehan by Nicholas Charles Photography (Tauranga).
Wednesday 17 April 2024
Carolyn Adams – Honouring Our Fathers’ War: The story that can now be told
Join us online or in person. Free. Koha from non-members appreciated.
The children of men who returned from World War Two often knew very little of their father’s war experience. Carolyn Adams’ book ‘The Stink and Other WW2 Stories of a Wellington Soldier’ explores the 25th Wellington Battalion’s wartime experiences, drawing from her father’s personal texts, photographs, and official records.
In this talk, Carolyn Adams discussed how the source material for her book on Chauncey Adam’s wartime service became part of the library’s collection. Returned soldiers were reluctant to talk about their wartime experiences and news coverage of the war was heavily censored. Carolyn’s research for her book, The Stink and Other WW2 Stories of a Wellington Soldier, started with her father’s personal records and filled in the gaps with official documents.
The main focus of the talk was on her father’s service and that of the ordinary soldiers of the 25th Wellington Battalion, including the horrific but little-known Battle of Sidi Rezegh.
Carolyn Adams spent her early years in New Plymouth but moved to Wellington in the late 1960s. After teaching and raising a family, she became a social policy analyst in the public sector with a special interest in housing policy and is now a researcher and writer, enjoying retired life in Wellington. As well as The Stink she has produced a family history called History: One Family at a Time.
Thursday 21 March
Barbara Francis: The Battle for Rangiriri, 20 November 1863 & the Aftermath
Barbara Francis recently published her third book ‘Titus Angus White & the Māori Captives on Waitematā Harbour 1863/4’. In this presentation, Barbara discussed the aftermath of the battle for Rangiriri — repercussions that continued well into 1864 and still rankle with descendants today.
Titus Angus White and the Māori Captives on Waitematā Harbour
In retirement, Barbara Francis embarked on a new career as a researcher and has now had her third book published. Titus Angus White & the Māori Captives on Waitematā Harbour 1863/4 emerged from family history research in 2020, involving her great-great-grandfather, Titus Angus White.
Needing further information about his life, Barbara visited Rangiriri in north Waikato where she had a most fortuitous meeting with senior iwi member, Brad Totorewa. It was Brad who challenged Barbara to write about what she found for Pākehā to know. Her book was launched in Wellington in 2023, 160 years after the battle for Rangiriri.
Her previous books, produced in 2010 and 2017, were both about Agnes Moncrieff, a Wellington YWCA Secretary who worked with the YWCA of China in 1930-1945.
Thursday 15 February 2024
Jared Davidson: Unfreedom forest: A history of New Zealand’s prison plantations
Credit: Hagen Hopkins.
Author Jared Davidson opened the 2024 Friends of the Turnbull Public Programme with a talk charting the history of New Zealand’s prison plantations — exotic forests grown by prisoners. In time these forests became extremely valuable and when they were sold off in the 1990s their privatisation was dubbed ‘the sale of the century’.
The felons among the firs
Significant parts of New Zealand’s exotic forests were born and raised by prisoners. Siphoned out of city jails and onto vast prison plantations, by 1921 the incarcerated had been made to plant 15,932 acres with over 40 million trees.
In this talk, author Jared Davidson charted the history of New Zealand’s prison plantations — from Waiotapu, Whakarewarewa, Waipā and Kāingaroa in the North Island to Hanmer and Dumgree in the South. These workscapes were subjected to human and extra-human forces of resistance, be it sabotage or sudden frosts, yet paved the way for state forestry and massive environmental change. By looking at ‘the felons among the firs’, Jared’s research paints NZ history in a whole new light.
About the author…
An archivist by day and an author by night, Jared Davidson is an award-winning writer based in Wellington, New Zealand. His books include the acclaimed Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914–1920 (Otago University Press, 2019), Sewing Freedom (AK Press, 2013), The History of a Riot (BWB Texts, 2021) and the co-authored He Whakaputanga: The Declaration of Independence (Bridget Williams Books, 2017). Through history from below, Jared explores the lives of people often overlooked by traditional histories – from working-class radicals of the early twentieth century to convicts of the nineteenth. He is currently the Research Librarian Manuscripts at the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Thursday 16 November 2023 – Hilary Stace, FoTL Research Grant 2023 recipient:
Researching a biography: Janet Fraser: Political Partnerships
Janet Fraser (1883-1945) was the political partner and wife of Prime Minister Peter Fraser. Both Scots-born, Janet and Peter met in Auckland and were active in the formation of the Labour Party. Later they moved to Wellington where Janet supported Peter through his imprisonment, and they were married a year after his election as an MP. Describing Janet as ‘a political feminist of the first post-suffrage generation’, Hilary Stace plans to produce the first published monograph on her life.
Hilary’s research reveals a woman who fought for social justice all her life. With friends and colleagues, Janet Fraser helped found the Labour Party and worked throughout her life to further its activities. She lobbied for women’s right to stand for Parliament and then supported others to do so.
Wednesday 25 October 2023
Taking Flight: The role and impact of women in Forest and Bird’s early history
Forest and Bird was the first of New Zealand’s modern-day conservation groups and women were involved from its creation. In this talk Tess Tuxford discussed the impact of six early women members, and described how archival research has helped expose the significance of women in New Zealand’s conservation heritage.
This talk discussed the impact of six early women members — Amy Hodgson, Pérrine Moncrieff, Elizabeth Gilmer, Violet Rucroft (Briffault), Lily Daff, and Audrey Eagle — and their contribution to conservation in roles including vice- presidents, honorary secretaries, and executive board members.
About the Speaker: Tess Tuxford is a Research Performance Advisor at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. She holds a Master of Science in Society and Bachelor of Arts in History. Her research interests lie in the history of science, particularly around the role and relevance of women. She was awarded Forest & Bird’s inaugural Force of Nature scholarship in 2020.
Tuesday 12 September 2023
Women’s Suffrage and Citizenship
In this talk, Professor Barbara Brookes discussed the campaign for women’s suffrage and how activists imagined suffrage as a beginning, rather than an end. She said that although the women who signed the Women’s Suffrage Petition and voted in the 1893 election hoped that they could have an influence on the shape of their society, men subsequently failed to represent their interests. After the passage of the Parliamentary Rights Act in 1919, when three women put themselves forward for election, their electorates did not select them as candidates. Barbara then drew attention to the fine example set by two early female MPs, Hilda Ross (elected 1945) and Iriaka Ratana (elected 1949), whose energy and achievements deserve widespread recognition.
Barbara Brookes is Professor Emerita, University of Otago. She is the author of the prize-winning, A History of Women in New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2016). Her most recent book, co-authored with James Dunk, is Knowledge Making: Historians, Archives and Bureaucracy (Routledge, 2020)
Wednesday 30 August 2023
Down the Conspiracy Rabbit Hole: Arthur Nelson Field and the Great Depression
Marinus La Rooij, co-editor of the recently published ‘Histories of Hate’, looked at the influence of A. N. Field on the political debate in New Zealand during the 1930s economic crisis and his influence as an important conspiratorialist ‘expert’ to the global far-right.
In the 1930s New Zealand experienced a severe social, economic and political crisis. As the Great Depression took hold, a widely respected and experienced journalist sought to understand the causes of the devasting collapse in purchasing power and the misery this unleashed across the country. Through a series of chance events, A.N. Field became convinced that the economic crisis had been deliberately manufactured by a super-conspiracy of malevolent Jewish bankers. Pouring his newfound conspiratorial antisemitism into his writings, Field influenced the political debate in New Zealand and became an important conspiratorialist ‘expert’ to the English-speaking far-right. Field’s influence was the subject of a chapter in the recently published book: Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand (Otago University Press, 2023).
Raised in Dunedin amidst a large Dutch immigrant family, Marinus La Rooij is an independent researcher with degrees from Otago and Victoria Universities. He has been researching and publishing on radicalisation, antisemitism and extremism over the last thirty years and was a co-editor of Histories of Hate. Professionally, Marinus has been a state servant and consultant working on transport and infrastructure matters, and also as an official in the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process.
At the FRIENDS OF THE TURNBULL LIBRARY AGM, held on 26 July 2023:
We are delighted to advise that President Katherine Baxter was reelected for a further term of office, and a new committee member was elected: Barbara Brookes, Professor Emerita at the University of Otago.
Following the meeting Dr Ashwinee Pendharkar, ATL Curator Contemporary Voices and Archives, gave a presentation about her role and the current work for which she is responsible. Her talk, Collecting for Contemporary Voices and Archives: Purpose and practice, drew on one collection as a case study: Abhi Chinniah is a New Zealand-born portrait photographer, podcaster and writer of Sri Lankan-Malaysian descent now living in New Zealand. The collection ATL-Group-00785 includes photographic portraits of NZ women from her exhibitions ‘Light Skin Dark Skin’ and ‘A Migrant’s Path’ along with interviews of and essays by these women, addressing the important issue of the negative impacts of colourism.
Dr Ashwinee Pendharkar is an academic and heritage professional with deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As the inaugural curator of CVA, she has been instrumental in giving form to the Alexander Turnbull Library’s vision for a diverse, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable documentary heritage representing all New Zealanders. She leads these efforts by proactively ensuring focus on hitherto marginalised and under-represented cultural identities, communities, events, concerns, and formats.
Wednesday 12 July 2023
Dr John E Martin – Empire City: The Making of Wellington
Dr John E Martin has researched and written about NZ history since the 1980s, teaching in universities and employed as an historian in the public sector. A former parliamentary historian in the 2000s and 2010s, he has published texts on rural and labour history, the history of science and engineering, and social and political history. Dr Martin talked about his book ‘Empire City’: Wellington Becomes the Capital of New Zealand (2022) which covers the period from first encounters between Māori and the New Zealand Company in Te Whanganui-a-Tara in 1839 through to becoming the ‘Empire City; by the 1870s.
The ‘Empire City’ story begins with a small and fragile NZ Company pākehā settlement relying only on whaling and racked by earthquakes and shows how a durable economic base was created and how Wellington became a thriving political and commercial centre and the country’s capital. This rich and turbulent story is the key to understanding how Wellington came from such unpromising beginnings to be the capital city.
Wednesday 19 July 2023 – TAKAPUNA CENTRAL LIBRARY
The Turnbull Library virtually everywhere – expanding the reach of the Turnbull Library through digital services
Alexander Turnbull’s vision for his original library was that it should be open to anyone who was a seeker after truth. Being open has taken on new meaning recently as the Turnbull has worked hard to make the Library’s collections accessible during COVID-19, a three week closure due to parliamentary protest and now a construction project that will create a bridge between the Library and the new Archives New Zealand building. Through this disruption we’ve focused on expanding access to the Library’s collections through digital services that reach researchers anywhere or everywhere. Associate Chief Librarians Jessica Moran and Alison McIntyre will introduce some of the current work underway (and collections available), from ensuring the preservation of endangered sound and video recordings through digitisation to creating a virtual reading room for researchers outside of Wellington.
Wednesday 21 June 2023: FoTL FOUNDER LECTURE 2023
Witi Ihimaera: INDIGENOUS ENVOY: The Māori writer as New Zealand practitioner and indigenous artisan
Witi Ihimaera DCNZM DCM is an acclaimed writer, anthologist and librettist.
Witi Ihimaera is an influential figure in New Zealand literature. Over his long career he has won numerous awards for both fiction and non-fiction. Witi was the first Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories, Pounamu, Pounamu, in 1972, and the first to publish a novel, Tangi in 1973. His immensely popular 1987 novel The Whale Rider has been read widely by children and adults both in New Zealand and overseas, and adapted into the critically acclaimed 2002 film.
Witi Ihimaera was Professor of English and Distinguished Creative Fellow in Māori Literature until 2010. His memoir, Māori Boy: A Memory of Childhood (2014) won the Ockham Book Award for non-fiction in 2015 and was followed by Native Son: The Writers Memoir. In 2017 Witi received a Prime Minister’s Award for fiction.
Witi Ihimaera’s work has been recognised by a Premio Ostana and a Chevalier Des Arts et Lettres. His work has been a set text in Africa and The Whale Rider is currently the subject of a Big Read at Gutenberg University, Germany and honoured text at the IRSCL Ecologies of Childhood Congress, USA, later this year.
Founder Lecture
In his korero, “The Māori writer as New Zealand practitioner” Witi talked about the propulsive energy of whakapapa, the inward spiral, which continues to motivate him and others to write the Māori story, the story of iwi, whanau and tangata within the complexities of an ever-changing Aotearoa New Zealand.
The second part of the korero, “The writer as Indigenous artisan” was more personal as Witi traced the outward-moving spiral which, following a 16-year career in Foreign Affairs, motivated him not just “to write the talk but also talk it and walk it” as an international artist. This is the lesser known story or kaupapa, of the Māori writer as an active supporter of indigenous peoples.
50th anniversary edition of Tangi
First released 50 years ago, Tangi was Witi Ihimaera’s debut novel and the first to be published by a Māori author. A landmark literary event, it went on to win the James Wattie Book of the Year Award. He was just 29 years old at the time.
Revisiting the text for this special anniversary edition, Witi has added richer details and developed the themes that have preoccupied him over a lifetime of writing.
Wednesday 7 June 2023
Helen Beaglehole, historian, editor and writer:
“Sources, Silences, Perspectives and Prejudices: the challenges of writing the first history of settlement in the Marlborough Sounds”
Helen Beaglehole is a Wellington historian who has spent over 40 years sailing and exploring in the Marlborough Sounds. She has written many award winning books for children from the very young to young adults. In recent years she has written and published well received New Zealand histories – on coastal lighthouses, their siting, building, technology, manning and demanning; the lighthouse keepers and their families; and rural firefighting. She has also contributed to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and Te Ara, New Zealand’s online encyclopedia.
In this presentation Helen will reflect on the challenges of researching and writing her recently published account of the complex history of settlement of the Sounds: One Hundred Havens: The settlement of the Marlborough Sounds published in 2022 by Massey University Press.