New Zealand’s first national historic landmark announced
Hon Grant Robertson
Associate
Minister of Arts, Culture and
Heritage
Hon Nanaia
Mahuta
Te Minita Whanaketanga
Māori
Minister for Māori
Development
27 June
2019 PĀNUI PĀPĀHO
JOINT MEDIA
STATEMENT
New Zealand’s first
national historic landmark announced
Te
Pitowhenua Waitangi Treaty Grounds is the country’s first
National Historic Landmark, Associate Minister for Arts,
Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced at Waitangi
today.
The new programme to establish National Historic Landmarks will help protect New Zealand’s defining moments in time and the special places that are the cornerstones of national identity.
“Some of these sites are associated with important and sometimes challenging discussions about the events that have shaped our past and will influence our future,” Grant Robertson says.
“Given the cultural, historic and social significance of this place, both before and after 6 February 1840, it’s appropriate the Waitangi Treaty Grounds is New Zealand’s first National Historic Landmark.”
Te Minita Whanaketanga Māori Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta says places such as Waitangi have deep significance to New Zealanders and its safeguarding is important to us all.
“Following discussions with site owners, iwi and the community, further Landmarks will be identified and added to the programme to recognise and preserve the heritage value of these places throughout the country,” Nanaia Mahuta says.
“A key objective of National Historic Landmarks is to help prioritise Government’s heritage conservation efforts. This includes developing long-term risk planning and management to ensure these places are earthquake resilient and protected from other natural disasters as much as possible.”
The National Historic Landmarks/Ngā Manawhenua o Aotearoa me ōna Kōrero Tūturu programme was introduced by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014. Heritage New Zealand works in partnership with Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage and other stakeholders including the Department of Conservation to deliver the programme.
Details about National Historic Landmarks is available on the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga website at: www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/national-historic-landmarks
Questions
and Answers
Q 1: What is the National Historic
Landmarks programme?
A: The
National Historic Landmarks programme was introduced by the
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 (HNZPTA) to
acknowledge those places that New Zealanders demonstrably
care about as cornerstones of national
identity.
Q 2: Haven’t we already got a
Landmarks programme?
A: Tohu
Whenua is the new name of a tourism programme covering a
nationwide regional group of visitor assets. A pilot
programme, under the name Landmarks Whenua Tohunga, was
initiated in 2015 in Northland. Otago followed with the West
Coast included in December 2018 under the new name Tohu
Whenua. The National Historic Landmarks programme, in
contrast, recognises heritage places of deep significance to
New Zealanders as the stories they tell are meaningful and
their survival important to us all.
Q 3: Who
runs Tohu Whenua?
A: Tohu
Whenua is run by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and
Heritage, the Department of Conservation and Heritage New
Zealand Pouhere Taonga. The aim is to showcase our historic
and culturally important places to locals and tourists in a
coordinated way. Heritage New Zealand now oversees this
programme, with a programme manager based in
Wellington.
Q 4: What is the aim of National
Historic Landmarks?
A: The aim
is to protect heritage places most important to New
Zealanders through long-term risk planning and management,
including from natural disaster. These places have rich
historical, physical, and cultural significance and without
them we are losing something special that identifies us as
New Zealanders. A key policy objective of National Historic
Landmarks is to help prioritise the government’s heritage
conservation efforts, including earthquake strengthening.
Q 5: Who runs National Historic
Landmarks?
A: The National
Historic Landmarks programme was introduced by the Heritage
New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 (HNZPTA) as a way to
better recognise and protect this country’s most
outstanding heritage places. Heritage New Zealand works in
partnership with Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and
Heritage and other stakeholders to deliver and promote the
programme.
Q 6: How much is National Historic
Landmarks costing the
taxpayer?
A: The programme is
being undertaken by Heritage New Zealand within existing
baseline funding. Heritage New Zealand adjusted some of its
programmes to generate the financial and capacity
requirements for National Historic
Landmarks.
Q 7: What are the sites selected
for National Historic
Landmarks?
A: In 2015 Heritage
New Zealand, in consultation with Manatū Taonga and the
Department of Conservation, short-listed potential National
Historic Landmarks. Te Pitowhenua Waitangi Treaty Grounds,
Meretoto/Ship Cove and the National War Memorial
(Wellington) are currently being progressed. Under the
HNZPTA criteria and process, Heritage New Zealand recommends
places for inclusion following public consultation with the
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage making the final
decision.
Q 8: How many National Historic
Landmarks will there be?
A:
Recognition is not based on achieving a set number, but
rather by sites put forward meeting several thresholds. Any
site can be proposed for recognition as a National Historic
Landmark, and is then assessed in terms of heritage
significance, risk management and community engagement.
Rigorous criteria are applied to the assessment of what
makes a National Historic Landmark.
Q 9: What
is this ‘rigorous
criteria’?
A: Places on the
National Historic Landmarks list must be of outstanding
national heritage value, having regard to the outstanding
historical significance of the place in relation to people,
events, and ideas of the past; the outstanding physical
significance of the place in relation to its archaeological,
architectural, design, and technological qualities; and the
outstanding cultural significance of the place to tangata
whenua and other communities in relation to its social,
spiritual, traditional, or ancestral associations. Any
nomination must first be listed on the New Zealand Heritage
List and put through a public consultation process before
being presented to Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and
Heritage, Hon. Grant Robertson for approval.
Q
10: Are there any regulatory impositions on places deemed
National Historic Landmarks?
A:
All National Historic Landmarks have to demonstrate
appropriate legal protection and risk management planning.
Should Heritage New Zealand consider these are not fulfilled
anymore by the owner a recommendation can be made to the
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage to remove the
place’s recognition as a National Historic
Landmark.
Q 11: So are the National Historic
Landmarks places the government is going to protect if there
is a natural disaster?
A: As
these places are those recognised as most valuable to all
New Zealanders priority will be given to ensuring they
remain part of our history. Insightful conservation is key
to the long-term protection of these places. To achieve this
will require close relationships between government and
those caring for these places to ensure long-term plans and
daily efforts are closely aligned, with natural disaster
risks appropriately managed.
Q 12:
Why was an Act, the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere
Taonga Act 2014, required to get them off the
ground?
A: National Historic
Landmarks/Ngā Manawhenua o Aotearoa me ōna Kōrero Tūturu
was introduced by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
Act 2014 to better recognise and protect this country’s
most outstanding heritage places and help prioritise the
government’s heritage conservation efforts. Heritage New
Zealand was charged with identifying places of outstanding
national heritage value in terms of their historical,
physical, and cultural significance. The purpose of a
National Historic Landmarks list is to promote an
appreciation of the places of greatest heritage value to New
Zealanders and the long-term protection of such places,
including protection from natural disasters.
Q
13: How will I recognise one?
A:
Every National Historic Landmark will have a
wakahuia, a carved treasure box holding the certificate of
Landmarks status, as a symbol of its National Historic
Landmarks recognition. This recognition will be communicated
via Heritage New Zealand and the owner’s
website.
ENDS