Beca Heritage Week returns with Making Connections theme

Thursday 19 June 2014

Beca Heritage Week returns with Making Connections theme

In the first week long celebration of Christchurch’s heritage since 2010, the Christchurch City Council and sponsors Beca are launching Heritage Week from 17 to 27 October 2014.

Themed as “Making Connections – experience our past-present-future”, Beca Heritage Week will focus on the historical connections that have shaped our city.

This year there is a collection of anniversaries of transport and infrastructure, so organisers are inviting groups and individuals to stage events that celebrate connections between people through time, with their heritage and the land, and with the past through technology.

Participants are urged to interpret connections in their broadest sense, such as commemorating the connections with the World Wars, and connecting with the past through technology.

Helen Beaumont, Manager of the Council’s Natural Environment and Heritage Unit says, “It is good to see Heritage Week back in full force. The Making Connections theme engages broadly with the story of our city – across our social history, our changing landscape and advances in science and technology.”

Included among the anniversaries for 2014 are:

• 150 years since New Zealand’s first hansom cab arrives in the city

• 150 years since the first council artesian well was drilled

• 125 years since the first New Zealand built locomotive was completed at Addington railway workshops

• 100 years since Riccarton Bush was presented to the city by the Deans family

• 100 years since World War I began

• 75 years since World War II began

• 50 years since the Lyttelton Road Tunnel opened

The Christchurch City Council has a contestable fund to support groups wanting to hold an event, and will also present four key events during Beca Heritage Week.

For more information, or to register an event for Beca Heritage Week visit www.heritageweek.co.nz and complete the application form by 25 June 2014.

- ends -

© Scoop Media