Posted 27 October 2010 // Julia Vodanovich // No comments »
It took me ages to come up with the theme of this quiz, but the other night I watched a story on Target that said New Zealand should have legislation to prevent the tattooing of 5 year olds. There was no tattooed 5 year old … and I thought to myself ‘Just what we need – more legislation!’
To view the quiz you need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player
Posted 21 October 2010 // Helen Rickerby // 3 comments »
A couple of weeks ago I returned to Cape Rēinga – Te Rerenga Wairua. In corporeal form, I hasten to add. Cape Reinga is, in Māori tradition, the departing place for the souls of the dead as they leave for Hawaiki.
When you visit, there is no denying it is special place – you can just feel it. It’s like being in a cathedral – if the cathedral’s roof was the sky, the floor a clifftop, and the choir was the meeting of two oceans and the wind over the barren hillsides.
Cape Rēinga – Te Rerenga Wairua
Cape Rēinga is at the top of the North Island – though not the very top, as Surville Cliffs takes that honour. In any case, it’s a very long way from Wellington. Driving there was like a pilgrimage; we’d travelled there because of a hard winter – one with a sudden, serious, and then resolved health problem. We journeyed there to let it go.
Despite our purpose, we’d meandered up the island, staying for a few days at Russell and Mangōnui, both places with a lot of history. The night before we stayed at Waitiki Landing – as far as you can go and still buy dinner, and have a cabin to sleep in.
‘You’ve been here before,’ said one of the ladies who run the office, and the café, and the bar and everything else up there. It was seven years ago since we’d been here. ‘It’s changed,’ they said. I said I’d heard they’d sealed the road from here. I was sad when I heard that, because before, with the gravel road, you had to slow down before you got there, you had to prepare. They said that wasn’t the only change, but they wouldn’t tell us any more than that. ‘We’ll let you see for yourselves,’ they said, ‘then come back and tell us what you think.’
The next morning we got up before it was properly light, woken by the people who were heading off for the annual fishing competition. The drive to the cape was certainly quicker on the sealed road, but, strangely, seemed hillier than in my memory.
The first change we noticed was that they’d moved the car park and toilets – this was in response to a request from local iwi Ngāti Kurī, as previous the toilets were too close to the tapu (sacred) site.
Now, to get from the car park to the path, you have to walk through a waharoa (gate/tunnel). (On the wall of the waharoa is a reproduction of this map – which you can view fullscreen – from 1790; the oldest known map made by a Māori.) When you enter the waharoa, a sensor starts a sound recording of Māori instruments – I think it was the whirring of a purerehua and the cry of a wind instrument such as a putātara (made of a conch shell) – and a karanga (welcome call). I couldn’t decide whether it was moving and appropriate, or theme-park tacky. Or possibly both (it did give me a lump in my throat).
One of the many helpful and informative signs
A new, immaculate path of red stones winds its way down from the car park to the lighthouse, replacing the unadorned asphalt one that used to be there. And every five steps along it a different sign or plaque tells you interesting tidbits about where you are and what you’re seeing. It felt like someone had taken a little piece of Te Papa and sprinkled it over this windswept coast at the end of the earth. I tried to ignore them – I was there to experience this special place, to feel it. To be there.
We reached the lighthouse – which is as far as you can go – to find a new stone wall all around it on the seaward side, which meant we couldn’t sit on the grass and watch the ocean, as we did seven years ago (there is a bench, but it faces the wrong way). But, I was relieved to find that the landscaping, designing and attempts at taming hadn’t taken away the power of the place. It is still amazing.
The lighthouse and path, as it used to be
On the way back up I did read some of the signs, and they told me helpful things about the meaning and history of the place, about the geology, geography and birdlife. While they give you an excuse to pause and catch your breath on the climb back up, as one of our hosts at Waitiki Landing pointed out later, for me it felt like it was trying to explain the experience for me while I was having it, or instead of me having it. Like someone sitting next to me at the movies, giving me a critical interpretation while I’m still watching the film.
That said, I know tourists visit Cape Rēinga by the bus-load every day. Having good paths stops the landscape from being damaged, and having signs tells them about the importance of the site. I know I liked it better before, but I also know some changes did have to be made.
There are other sites around New Zealand, and the world, that have been ‘landscaped’ and ‘interpreted’ to make them more accessible, and better for tourists. Should they be? What do you think? Which ones have you been to?
Posted 14 October 2010 // Heath Sadlier // 4 comments »
As a visual person, I love Te Ara because each story is told through images as well as text. We source images from anywhere and everywhere, but mainly through institutions like archives, libraries and museums. As users, you usually only ever see a smaller image that has been optimised for the web. Behind the scenes we are very lucky to see the more detailed version of every image.
However, using a tool called Zoomify we can allow you to zoom in and see all the detail in an image. We have been using it for years, but until now you have only been able to view it in a small window. We’ve recently updated Zoomify, and we’re now adding the ability to view them full-screen as we gain permission from copyright holders.
When viewing the high-res image, especially full-screen, you tend to notice details you’ve never seen before, like the texture of the paper, emotions on faces or the amount of detail that was hand-drawn into text.
So rather than view the image below in a small window, click on the green full-screen button, use the controls to zoom in, and fill your screen with moths (that might not sound particularly appealing, but you will just have to trust me). If you would prefer, we also have the pages covering larvae … and, if you must, butterflies.
Currently there are only around 200 that have the special green button, but we plan to extend it to more images in time. Here is a list of some of the best images that you can now view full-screen:
And last but not least is a popular board game from the 1950’s called Holdson’s Educational Tour of New Zealand. Don’t worry if you end up in Palmy, you can immediately advance to Wellington.
Is your favourite image on Te Ara available full-screen? Let us know if it isn’t (or if it is) in the comments below.
(p.s. sorry for picking on you Palmy, you know I love you.)
Posted 6 October 2010 // Rosemary Du Plessis // No comments »
Whether you are a believer or not, religion matters! Te Ara has just published three new entries on Missions and missionaries, the Anglican Church and the Salvation Army. These entries highlight the importance of religion at a time when an increasing proportion of people indicate that they have no religious beliefs. Eventually there will be sixteen entries on different aspects of religion and its place in the spiritual, cultural and political life of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Missions and missionaries looks at attempts by Christian churches to convert Māori. It charts the origins of these activities in the establishment of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in London in 1799 and Samuel Marsden‘s conviction that Māori would be receptive to Christianity. The importance of Māori–missionary collaboration is highlighted in the story of the relationship between Marsden and the chief Ruatara of Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, who Marsden met while travelling from England to Australia.
The perils of missionary life – John Williams is not welcome on the island of Erromanga
Some early missionaries were controversial figures. Thomas Kendall produced the earliest written versions of Māori but was suspended by the CMS for adultery, and Henry Williams was accused of unfairly acquiring land from Māori. While Anglicans were the first to establish missions, the Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society (WMS) sent missionaries to New Zealand in 1822. The Methodist missionaries eventually established a mission on the Hokianga Harbour and started to convert Māori in 1830. The first Catholic mission was established near the Methodist mission by Jean Baptiste Pompallier in 1838. He brought with him a mobile altar – suitable for use in any number of different situations. Te Ara provides an interesting interactive map showing the mission stations established in the North Island by 1845.
The entries on the Anglican Church and the Salvation Army provide contrasting approaches to the way Christian churches have operated in Aotearoa New Zealand. Anglicans were the first church to become established and Henry Williams played an important role in persuading Māori chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. Anglicans not only had a role as negotiators between Māori and non-Māori – they sometimes acted as intermediaries between different Māori groups. The Anglican Church in New Zealand finalised its written constitution in 1857 and became very involved in the establishment of church schools, including schools for Māori, such as Te Aute Māori Boys’ College, at which several prominent Māori leaders received their education. While only 17% of all New Zealanders indicated they were Anglicans in the 2006 census, Anglicanism remains the largest single religious denomination.
The Salvation Army has never had the number of members enjoyed by the Anglican Church, but it has been a significant presence in Aotearoa since 1883. By 1886 the church had 5,000 members and in 1899 hosted a visit by William Booth, the British founder of the Salvation Army. Members focused on poverty as well as salvation. They defined themselves as God’s soldiers, dressed in uniforms, distributed The War Cry, and took their message into the streets through the use of brass bands and invitations to the ‘unsaved’ to ‘repent’. Women were active as officers in the Salvation Army and had more involvement in leadership than women in other more established churches.
The Salvation Army’s ‘mission’ was largely to the urban poor, but a mission to Māori – Te Ope Whakaora (the group of lifegivers) – was established on the Whanganui River in 1888. Māori members of this mission later formed a concert party and toured to raise money for the Salvation Army. This mission to Māori was short-lived and closed in the 1890s, but in the 21st century the church is active in its work with Māori, especially around issues relating to addiction.
We’ve already published an entry on Atheism and secularism, and future entries on religious belief and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand will include Māori spirituality, Māori prophetic movements, Te Haahi Rātana – the Rātana Church, and Ngā Haahi – Māori and Christian churches. Entries will also be published on each of the major Christian denominations, Pacific Island churches and the beliefs and practices of other religious traditions. Te Ara invites users to post their comments or offer their stories on these entries.
Posted 5 October 2010 // Simon Nathan // No comments »
Robert FitzRoy – father of forecasting
The Times of London recently included an editorial and two-page feature to mark the 150th anniversary of their first published weather forecast, in September 1860. The paper has published daily weather forecasts ever since, and this is the page that almost every reader looks at.
The New Zealand connection with the early weather forecasts is that they were devised by Robert FitzRoy, naval captain and navigator, who was governor of New Zealand from 1843 to 1845. FitzRoy was not a success as governor, and was replaced in late 1845 when he returned to a career in the Royal Navy, eventually gaining the rank of rear admiral. After retirement from active service in 1854, he was appointed to lead a small group collecting weather information at sea, with the title of Meteorological Statist to the Board of Trade. It was a backwater, but he developed it into a respected scientific organisation that became the British Meteorological Service.
FitzRoy arranged for a group of British sea captains to systematically collect weather measurements with specially designed instruments. After a huge storm in 1859 which caused large loss of life, he developed charts from which predictions of future weather could be made. Fifteen land stations around Britain were set up, from where regular weather measurements were telegraphed to him in London. In 1860 FitzRoy produced his first predictions of future weather, for which he coined the name ‘weather forecasts’, and published them in The Times. He also started a system of hoisting storm warning cones at major ports when a storm was expected. His Weather Book, published in 1863, provided a model for weather that was later used by weather forecasters around the world.
Weather forecasting was highly controversial in 1860, especially as the early forecasts were often wrong. Some likened forecasting to astrology, and there was scathing correspondence in the letters page of The Times. Many fishing fleet owners objected to gale warnings, requiring fleets not to leave ports, but FitzRoy had strong support from sailors and fishermen. The ongoing criticism as well as a lack of support from Admiralty superiors may have contributed to his suicide in 1865.
FitzRoy’s work provided the basis for the development of weather forecasting in New Zealand. James Hector, recently returned from exploration in western Canada, was working in London during 1860-61, and would have been well aware of the discussions about forecasting, both in the newspapers and behind the scenes at the Royal Society. For over 40 years after he arrived in New Zealand in 1862, Hector was to play a major part in the collection of weather data, but the day-to-day forecasting was done by Captain Robert Edwin, who based his forecasts closely on the system adopted by FitzRoy. Once a telegraph cable had been laid across Cook Strait, results from observer stations could be telegraphed to a base in Wellington, forming the basis for forecasts.
Recently NIWA has named its new supercomputer, to be used for environmental work and weather forecasting, after Robert FitzRoy. He deserves to be remembered as the father of weather forecasting.
