Signposts – a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

New theme editors, Nigel Roberts and Stephen Levine

The man who brought us David Lange, Jim Bolger, Helen Clark and John Key will now help bring us the Government and Nation theme of Te Ara.

Nigel Roberts has been an election night commentator on TV One for every election since 1987. Along with his colleague Stephen Levine, he will be joint theme editor for the seventh theme of Te Ara, which will examine the activities of government and the symbols of national identity.

Nigel Roberts and Stephen Levine have both been professors of political science at Victoria University of Wellington. They have worked together on projects since 1972. Their joint output consists of one book which they authored, six books where they were co-editors, and no less than 66 articles. They have particularly specialised on elections and the electoral system; and their most recent publication was Key to Victory, a collection of articles on the 2008 election.

Although both are very knowledgeable about New Zealand politics and government, their interests are not insular. Nigel Roberts has a special interest in Scandinavian electoral systems, and spent four months as the information officer and photographer at Scott Base. His photograph of the tail of the crashed DC10 on Erebus became the visual symbol of that tragic event. He is also a distinguished mountaineer. Of the highest mountains on the seven continents, he has climbed five.

Stephen Levine has written on Pacific Islands and Southeast Asian politics, and is a leading historian of the New Zealand Jewish community. He contributed the entry on Jews for Te Ara.  He also established the internship programme for political science students at the New Zealand Parliament, served several terms as editor of Political Science, and was a member of the Board of Fulbright New Zealand.

The two theme editors are now in the midst of their first big task – drawing up the entry list for the theme before we begin commissioning contributors. Next year the first entries about how we rule ourselves and express our nationhood will be appearing on Te Ara.

Inglewood war memorial

Is Anzac Day a day of mourning for men struck down in their prime, or is it a day for talking about our national character and expressing a pride in the achievements of our armed forces?

The issue was sparked for me when I recently read all the Anzac Day addresses given at the Palmerston North showgrounds in the 1920s. Between 1920 and 1925 there was a striking difference in tone. In 1920, when the Great War was still a very painful memory, the speakers at the service addressed the parents, sisters, girlfriends and wives of men who had fallen and had not returned. The ceremony was a collective funeral service for people who could not visit their loved one’s grave and had never had the chance to attend their funeral. Wreaths were laid, the bands played the ‘Dead march’, a bugler sounded the ‘Last post’ (used for burial services on the battlefield), and the padre described the day as one ‘of common sorrow’. The focus was very much on the horrors of the western front.

By 1925 the speakers were no longer addressing relatives of the fallen. They talked instead to the ‘rising generation’, school children who had not been fully conscious when the original Anzac Day had occurred. This time the speeches were less about death, and far more about the heroism of the New Zealanders. They described in detail what had actually happened at Gallipoli and the New Zealanders’ contribution there. The previous focus on the western front (where the vast majority of the New Zealanders had died) had disappeared. The Palmerston North newspaper commented that new theme for Anzac Day was ‘the birth of a national spirit’.

NZ On Screen has put together a great collection of war-related films to commemorate Anzac Day, all but two of which have appeared within the last 20 years? Where do they sit in this spectrum?

Well there are two Gallipoli films, but only the 1984 documentary is primarily a detailed account of New Zealand’s achievement there. There are plenty of expressions of pride in New Zealand at war, and there are a couple of movies which try to evoke the particular spirit of the Kiwi soldiers – most brilliantly in Taika Waititi’s short film, Tama tū.

Yet, the most striking feature of these films is how often they tell the story of New Zealanders at war by using the dramatic device of a descendant or a loving relative. Sometimes it is descendants returning to the battlefield:

• In Children of Gallipoli two young New Zealanders and two young Turks describe their ancestors’ experiences.
• In Our lost war Robyn Malcolm follows her great-uncle into the muddy soupy graveyard of Passchendaele.
• In Our oldest soldier David Blyth tells us about his grandfather, Curly Page, who was at the time New Zealand’s oldest veteran of the First World War.

There are two films which both include the phrase ‘My father’s war’ in their titles – one on Second World War Italy and one on Vietnam. There are also three that focus on the relationship of families and soldiers – Gaylene Preston’s powerful War stories, Peter Berger’s Turangawaewae, which tells of a Vietnam-War veteran who finds his place to stand through his daughter, and Paolo Rotondo’s Dead letters, which points out the crucial role of letters in linking soldiers with their family and friends back home.

These films suggest that New Zealanders continue to explore the meaning of war for individuals. In the end, although Anzac Day speeches may trumpet about a national coming of age, Anzac Day continues to have the meaning it had in 1920. It is still about young men, and a few women, who lost their lives because they believed it was worth fighting for some higher purpose. They were very young people – usually in their early 20s. Their future was all ahead of them, and they were cut off in their prime. Mothers, siblings and lovers were left bereft; and today sons and widows and grandchildren continue to remember them. Anzac Day is a nation’s day – but as these films remind us, it is also about individual New Zealanders mourning a personal loss.

Kapiti Island

School holidays can be trying for a large, extended and complicated family like mine, since there aren’t many activities that appeal to all members. A trip to the offshore bird sanctuary of Kapiti Island seemed like the best bet on one recent sunny day. The teenager was persuaded to give it a go by stories of the island’s past as a fortress and whaling station. The short boat trip from Paraparaumu was a promising start, and on arrival at the island we were greeted by a line-up of hospitable kererū, kākā and weka.

After an excellent introductory talk by a Department of Conservation worker named Rochelle, our large party set off for the summit, stopping part-way to admire a flock of hihi at a feeding station set up for them in the bush. Their peculiar call, which gives them their English name of stitchbird, sounded to me more like a series of squeaky hinges. When we reached the trig station at the highest point of the island and looked down at the almost sheer seaward side, there was an unexpected bonus in the form of a school of dolphins, hurdling southwards in a series of lighthearted leaps.

Not all the island’s promised attractions revealed themselves on this visit. No one heard or saw the elusive kōkako, and although we were told that a population of 14 takahē lived on the swampy flats near the shore, we saw no sign of these miraculous creatures. But one very flamboyant kākā did its best to make up for this with a bravura performance of lunch stealing just before we left.

It was an oddly humbling experience to know that we were the interlopers on this expedition. The island belonged to the birds and we were permitted to briefly intrude on them as a special concession. Even the teenager could admit that this beat going on Facebook.

The Resources Team at the Police Museum – not part of the rogues gallery (click for full picture)

On the 29th of March Te Ara’s Resources Team attended the launch of the New Zealand Police Museum’s new website and first ever online exhibition.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about our visit to the re-launched Police Museum. Their new website gives staff the opportunity to show more of the collections and education work they do. It also gave Canadian intern Chelsea Nichols the opportunity to stage this new exhibition, ‘Suspicious Looking‘.

‘Suspicious Looking’ is an exhibition about 19th century mug shots, those often unflattering but fascinating snaps taken by police when someone is arrested. The exhibition has a rogues’ gallery of criminals, along with the crimes they were arrested for. The list of crimes is intriguing – fancy taking a guess at what the sentence for being a rogue and a vagabond would be in 1888? Try a year behind bars.

The museum is a great, hands-on place (as you can see from the above photo of the members of the Resources Team), so why not check it (or the new website) out.

Possibly it’s because we have so much coastline here in New Zealand – over 15,000 kilometres in fact – so a lot of life is lived around the coast. For some, this means life revolves around boats and sailing. For me, I’ve been sailing only once, not in New Zealand but in Vancouver. It was a short trip across the harbour for a cup of coffee; I admit it felt very novel, but not half as exciting as the trips friends of mine have embarked upon, across oceans and seas to far off lands. Still, you know, the coffee was nice…

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