Wanganui’s rich history in the spotlight

Wanganui’s rich history in the spotlight

Illuminating local stories of WWI, early rugby history, politics in the Depression era, and the lives of early missionaries are among topics in a public seminar series launching in Wanganui on May 3.

Organised by Massey University and the Alexander Heritage and Research Library, the six seminar series will be delivered by researchers from Massey University who have explored Wanganui’s history.

The series offers local people a chance to gain insights and learn about some of the many fascinating events and people who have contributed to the character of their town, says co-organiser Dr Kirsty Carpenter, a senior lecturer in history in the School of Humanities, who lives in Wanganui.

“This is a wonderfully exciting project in the spirit of linking up Massey postgraduate students with the local community that they are writing about,” she says.

Gillian Tasker, Heritage Services Leader at the Alexander Heritage and Research Library, says the library is “delighted” to partner with Massey University to present local history to the wider community.

“Wanganui is a very old community, and one that supports new research into gaining a better understanding of ourselves, where we have come from, and new opportunities for our future,” Ms Tasker says.

The partnership between the library and the University aims to raise awareness of the presence of history in the local community as well as celebrating students embarking on careers in the rich field of New Zealand historical research. It also has the support of Wanganui’s secondary school history teachers.

Dr Carpenter, whose specialist area is the history of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era (1789-1815), as well as relations between France and New Zealand from 1840 to the present, says there is a great deal of local history in New Zealand that has yet to be uncovered, researched and written about.

She hopes the series will inspire local people to develop a greater awareness of the rich history on their doorstep. It was something she observed while studying history in France, where she says many small communities are involved in sharing, talking about, and promoting the writing of local history.

“I think this is something New Zealanders could adapt from their counterparts in provincial France who support their local historians by eagerly buying whatever is written about the locality, and using it to promote tourism and other municipal cultural activities,” Dr Carpenter says.

A seminar series for next year has already been confirmed. Speakers for 2016 include Massey doctoral students Fiona McKergow, who will speak about women’s material culture in the Wanganui area; Pauline Knuckey, who is examining movie going in the 1960s in New Zealand provinces; and Moyra Cook who is researching Wanganui’s Parliamentary representative John Bryce.

The 2015 seminar series is sponsored by the W H Oliver Humanities Research Academy, and will be run at 2pm on Sundays at the Alexander Heritage and Research Library.

2015 seminar details:

o 3 May: David Littlewood, 'A Fair Chance? - Wanganui Men and the Military Service Boards during the Great War'
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David Littlewood is currently a lecturer in Massey University’s history programme. He has just submitted his PhD on the subject of the New Zealand Military Service Boards.

o 17 May: Liz Ward, 'Depression Politics in Wanganui: The New Zealand Legion, its rise and fall 1933-1934'
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Liz Ward is currently preparing her Masters dissertation on ‘The All Saints’ Anglican Orphanage in Palmerston North’.

o 7 June: Bill Greenwood, ‘Amateur or Professional?: The 1905 All Blacks, the 1907 New Zealand All Blacks, and the introduction of rugby league football to New Zealand and Wanganui, 1905 to the Great War.’
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Dr Bill Greenwood received his PhD in history for a thesis: ‘Class Conflict and Clash of the Codes: the Introduction of Rugby League to New Zealand – 1908 to 1920’. He also prepared his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and his Master of Arts in history at Massey, and published an article with Associate Professor James Watson, titled The Famous Northern Union Game, on the rise and fall of rugby league in Wanganui from 1910 to 1915.

o 21 June: Huia Kirk, ‘The Putiki Mission Station.’
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Huia Kirk is a retired local secondary school teacher with a passion for Wanganui history. She prepared her Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at Massey on the ‘The impact of Early Missionaries on the Māori of Putiki, Wharanui, and the Whanganui River 1839-1849’.

o 5 July: Margaret Tennant, ‘Across the Street, Across the World: the New Zealand Red Cross in War and Peace’.
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Professor Emeritus in history at Massey, Margaret Tennant is currently writing a contract ‘History of the Red Cross in New Zealand’.

o 19 July: Alistair Watts, ‘Franco-British-New Zealand relations prior to WWI from the provincial perspective.’
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Alistair Watts has completed his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) at Massey and is currently preparing a Master of Arts on relations between New Zealand and France 1870-1914 entitled ‘The natural inclination of New Zealand was to oppose an imperial alliance with France’.

ENDS

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