“You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared” – World Heritage Day 2020.
In collaboration with The Elms, Tauranga Historical Society and the Tauranga City Library, the Tauranga Heritage Collection created the display 'Explore Heritage this Summer'. It encouraged visitors to go out and encounter the fascinating heritage experiences the Western Bay of P...
"In 2015 the development of 107 Wharf Street triggered an archaeological investigation that has allowed the layers of the past to be scientifically recorded and artefacts collected through excavation. The job of the archaeologist is to unpick the evidence left behind, often buried, by people who have lived before us to understand the way they lived and when.” - Brigid Gallagher, MishMish Heritage....
Taonga tūturu from the Tauranga Heritage Collection features in Matatoki: Mata ā Waka, the first exhibition to open Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga’s 2020 programme celebrating Mana Moana – Mana Tauranga....
In a collaboration with the Tauranga Historical Society we created a display honouring local photographer Alf Rendell who passed away 27 December 2019. Alf made a huge contribution to the Collection, both in terms of his knowledge and expertise and in the many important donations he made over the years. Our collaboration for Tongan Language Week was just one of many highlights. The display was par...
At the Tauranga Heritage Collection nothing signals Christmas is coming more than our wonderful team of volunteers going on their well-deserved summer break. Every week our dedicated volunteers tackle a mountain of work that contributes towards the preservation of our city’s heritage. From research and cataloguing to sewing and proof-reading our volunteers have skills and experience we couldn’t do...
Charlie's Magical History Tour is a 'then and now' look at the heart of Tauranga through the eyes of five year old Charlie, who invites us join him on his adventure.
A class set of this book is available from Hands on Tauranga, our object lending library for Tauranga schools....
2018 marked the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Western Bay Women, published by the Tauranga Heritage Collection, was created to commemorate and celebrate this achievement. The Western Bay women who featured in the publication are from a wide variety of backgrounds and pursue many different paths from sport, business and education to activism, advocacy and the arts. While no ...
Tongatapu and World War Two was a collaboration between the Tauranga Heritage Collection and Tauranga City Libraries and acknowledged Tongan Language Week (1-7 September 2019). For the first time the display gave the public a glimpse of war time photography captured by local legend and photographer Alf Rendell.
Alf enlisted in the New Zealand Army 78 years ago and from October 1942 to March 1943 ...
To celebrate New Zealand Fashion Week (26 August – 1 September) Tauranga Heritage Collection collaborated with the Tauranga City Library to display a collection of 1960s and early 1970s dresses worn by local woman Ruth Espin.
In 1968 Ruth secured a home science position at Otumoetai Intermediate and in that year met her husband Doug Espin. Together they would begin their farming life in the Weste...
To accompany the Te Whakaata i te Matapihi, Glimpses, light-box display the team at the Tauranga Heritage Collection have created a 52 page full colour booklet that explores a selection of taonga Maori from the collection.
“Hei pupuri te aho o te wananga, hei kawe i nga kura huna a Rua.”
“To hold fast to the strands of valued knowledge”
Embodied in this whakatauki (proverbial saying) is the n...
Several important taonga from the Tauranga Heritage Collection are on display at the Tauranga Art Gallery as part of Te Rangi Haupapa – A Woven History (19 October 2019 – 8 March 2020). The exhibition, curated by Arpege Taratoa, also features taonga from The Elms along side works by contemporary artists Brett Graham and Rachael Rekena, Tawhai Rickard, James Ormsby, Nikau Hindin, Greg Semu, Te Maru...
A rich inky blackness broken by a body of green, evoking elements of dark water and stone…maybe a hint of something surfacing from the watery depths, drawing us to look further. But is this object emerging or softly sinking? Is it floating free or trapped within the frame? With deliberate ambiguity photographer Adrienne Martyn deftly interplays light and dark, space and enclosure to challenge our...
The First World War ended at 11am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918. War-weary soldiers celebrated little. Most simply wanted to go home. On returning to New Zealand, some with new brides and babies, they found a country scarred by influenza and communities eager to get on with life.
In Te Hokinga Mai Homecomings the stories of our local soldiers who made it back to Tauranga were to...
'Tauranga 1918' explored Tauranga 100 years ago and revealed that although Tauranga has grown in size, century old connections remain.
By 1918 Tauranga had a new post office, fire station, hospital and a Town Hall, which seated 700. Households could connect to the town water supply as well as public sewage and telephone systems. Many homes were embracing the use of electricity - although unattend...
When Charles Southey's daughter asked her father why he was awarded his Military Medal for bravery at Passchendaele, he modestly replied that he 'wrote a good report'. Only years later did she learn the extent of his bravery.
"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on 1 November 1918 south of Valenciennes. He was ordered to reconnoitre with a patrol beyond the final objective. Finding thi...
Four Tauranga men died during the bloodiest period of Passchendaele - Albert Wasley, Sydney Carl Jordan, William Cunningham and Cecil Guinness. I Died in Hell tells the story of Carl Jordan through his own words and those of his friends. The exhibition included excerpts from letters written by Carl and his friends and gave attendees an insight into what these men experienced and endured during the...
Hard of hand, muscle and face New Zealand’s tunnellers, our pick and shovel men, left their mark on the World War One landscape. Pick and Shovel Men, Tauranga to the Trenches, explored the tunnels beneath Arras highlighting the hardships and achievements of these brave men, while revealing the graffiti which tells their story.
WWI was the first time in British military history that tunnelling com...
The Somme: From Tauranga to the Trenches featured maps, quotes, photographs and facts relating to New Zealand’s efforts at the Somme. It also revealed the connection Tauranga had to “that terrible battle” through the stories and images of many of the Tauranga men who fought and, in some cases, died there.
The exhibition opened at the Phoenix car park downtown Mount Maunganui on 15 September 2016 ...
Te Hokowhitu a Tū Māori Pioneers commemorated the exploits of the Māori Battalion during the First World War. The battalion was raised in 1915 and served at Gallipoli and the Western Front. This exhibition was part of the 2016 Tauranga Moana Matariki Festival....
On 23 October 1915 the British Transport Ship Marquette was struck by a torpedo from a German submarine in the Aegean Sea. Of the 741 people on board 167 were lost, including 10 members of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service who had cared for Gallipoli casualties in Egypt.
A Marquette Angel, a From Tauranga to the Trenches exhibition, told the story of Nurse Jeanne Sinclair, a survivor of the si...
Gallipoli, From Tauranga to the Trenches exhibition focused on the Gallipoli campaign and provided information, photographs and objects which captured the daily undertakings of soldiers at Gallipoli. The exhibition was initially placed at Masonic Park and then relocated to Classic Flyers as part of a larger First World War exhibition created by Metro Marketing. It opened on Anzac Day and was free ...
From Tauranga to the Trenches told the story of Private Reginald Watkins, a Tauranga man who led ‘an ordinary yet remarkable life’. In telling Reg’s story the remarkable lives of all those local men who served, some of whom never returned home, were told.
Reginald Watkins was a son and a brother. He was a Captain in the Salvation Army, a farmer and a fisherman. He was a fine sailor and owned a la...
Since it opened in August 2014, a “Tauranga to the Trenches” mobile exhibition displaying First World War material from the Tauranga Heritage Collection, Hauraki Regimental Association, and private collections has been well-received by visitors, young and old. The exhibition uses interactive technology and visual displays to tell the stories of local men who were involved in the First World War. T...
From the Sidelines celebrated Bay rugby through the lens of award winning local photographer Mark McKeown (MNZIPP) and selected objects from the Tauranga Heritage Collection.
McKeown, a previous winner of the New Zealand Sports Photographer of the Year award and recipient the NZIPP Master of Photography, focused his camera on the fans and supporters of local rugby. “Working as a photographer for ...
‘Make every yard of ground yield. Beg, buy or borrow a spade and Dig for Victory’ – Evening Post 1943.
As part of the Garden and Art Festival the Tauranga Heritage Collection presented ‘Digging for Victory’ an exhibition which explored Tauranga responses to the World War Two campaign of home front gardening. It also featured present-day residents reviving a ‘grow your own’ philosophy.
The exhibi...
