As a teacher of New Zealand history to a NCEA Year 1 class, where are you going to get all the material you need? Links to the most relevant websites? Quick references to significant events from New Zealand's past?
'The Classroom' is a new initiative being created by the Ministry's History Group and is part of a wider redevelopment of our popular NZHistory.net.nz website. It is an exciting project that aims to support and promote the teaching of New Zealand history in schools.
For some time New Zealand history topics have struggled to find a place in the teaching programmes of our schools. This has been particularly true at Year 13 where most schools still choose Tudor and Stuart England for the externally assessed component rather than the New Zealand alternative. History teachers point to the lack of easily accessible, reliable and affordable resources for New Zealand history studies, and this is where 'The Classroom' comes in.
'The Classroom' will provide teaching material that links content on NZHistory.net.nz (as well as the other MCH websites) with the curriculum. For instance, a class exploring issues relating to national identity will find a feature on the 1940 Centennial Exhibition, facts and figures, sound and image files associated with the topic, links to other relevant websites like the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography – and related activities and exercises for students. It's a versatile and adaptable digital learning environment.
Teachers (and students) will be familiar with the language, navigation and organisation of 'The Classroom' as they reflect existing curriculum content.
'The Classroom' will also become an important resource for professional development. The 'Teacher's Toolbox' offers a range of helpful resources from 'How to' guides through to contemporary research. And the site will host email and discussion forums to support the history teaching community.
A calendar of events in New Zealand history is being developed, encouraging teachers to incorporate significant events, people and moments from our past into their history teaching programmes.
'The Classroom' will consolidate NZHistory.net.nz's reputation as a reliable, widely-relevant, constantly evolving and up-to-date resource. It has the potential to integrate the best content on the Ministry's stable of websites (and those of other cultural sector agencies) to make New Zealand history the subject of choice for students of all ages. The Tudors and Stuarts will be turning in their graves!
A prototype of the website is now accessible to teachers to help with planning their 2006 programmes. The full site will be ready by the start of the 2006 school year. Get a taste of what's to come here: http//www.nzhistory.net.nz/classroom/
Should you have any comments or suggestions for 'The Classroom' please contact steve.watters@mch.govt.nz.
It has been deeply satisfying to witness the growth and development across the culture and heritage sector over the past six years. There is a greater sense of involvement and interest in New Zealand's cultural activities now, and recognition of the potential for even further development using the tools of our times.
In the 21 st century, we are harnessing the power of the internet to tell the stories and project the images of our unique culture, and of our history, traditions, land, and people. Through the internet we can make those images and experiences widely accessible.
Two online projects developed by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage have been launched already this year: the online encyclopedia, Te Ara, and 'From Memory', the website honouring the war memories of our veterans. This issue of @MCH introduces the Ministry's new web-based projects and its leading role in planning for a digital broadcasting future.
These cultural projects speak of our identity and they consolidate our place in the world as an innovative, technology-literate nation.
As Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, I continue to take great pride in what the whole sector is achieving. I do so confident of the ongoing support and portfolio experience of Associate Minister Judith Tizard and of the added insights the new Associate Minister, Mahara Okeroa, brings to his role.
I know too that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage will continue to encourage exploration of our culture by providing accessible, topical, and relevant resources.
Helen Clark
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage
Although some New Zealanders interpret 'culture' to mean solely the visual and performing arts, in reality it has many manifestations. Culture is also about identity, and the things that shape identity – like television, learning or recreation – along with our histories, heritage, traditions, beliefs and values.
In the work we do at the Ministry we're concerned with its broader meaning – and how it reflects the reality of being a New Zealander. The range of projects undertaken by the Ministry epitomises culture as an all-embracing concept. We work to deliver up-to-date, sustainable and sound strategies to actively promote New Zealand's culture.
This issue of the Ministry's Newsletter gives an idea of programmes we're developing for the 21 st century. We have a raft of exciting web-based projects that address the challenges of using rapidly-advancing technologies to ensure that cultural understandings, information and experiences are appreciably more accessible.
We work with today's technology to satisfy today's knowledge-seekers. Their needs are addressed by our award-winning online encyclopedia of New Zealand, Te Ara, the expanded nzhistory.net.nz website which includes a brilliant new classroom feature; the upcoming cultural portal, and plans for delivery of the best in digital broadcasting for New Zealand now and into the future.
Martin Matthews
Chief Executive
The Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio offers Ministers regular opportunities to 'speak to the nation' in terms that promote constructive analysis of our past, of current issues and of possible futures.
With the announcement of portfolio allocations in the new government, the Ministry welcomes the return of Rt Hon Helen Clark as Minister for Arts, Culture and Culture; Hon Judith Tizard as Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage; Hon Steve Maharey as Minister of Broadcasting; and Hon Trevor Mallard as Minister for Sport and Recreation. In addition, we welcome the appointment of Hon Mahara Okeroa as a new Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.
Mahara Okeroa's appointment as the second Associate Minister signifies the importance attached to the sector by this government, and the recognition that a self-aware, confident and cohesive society is built on a strong and secure sense of cultural identity.
Our distinctive culture is sustained by arts and creative activities, by sports and recreation, by engagement with our history, heritage and environment, and by languages, film and broadcasting. They are components of our cultural life that benefit immeasurably from the guardianship of interested and committed Ministers.
For the past few years historians in the Ministry have been involved with the Frontier of Dreams project — an ambitious television and book tie-in that covers 130 million years of New Zealand history. In September, the series and book were officially launched at Te Papa. The series screens at primetime of a Saturday evening on TV One, and will run until the week before Christmas. Over half the print-run of the book has sold already, and it has appeared in the country's top five best-selling non-fiction books during October and November. Ministry historians are now engaged in a series of talks, organised by the Book Council, to promote the book and the study of New Zealand history.
The project began late in 2000 when TVNZ called for submissions for the production of a documentary series exploring New Zealand history from pre-Maori times through to the present day. Top Shelf and Whakapapa Productions, along with a team from the Ministry led by Jock Phillips, developed the Frontier of Dreams project. The name 'Frontier of Dreams' was designed to capture the spirit of adventure, and the hopes and dreams, of the waves of migrants who arrived in New Zealand over the last several hundred years.
Many hands have gone into the making of the project: foundation storylines were written by some of New Zealand's top scholars; researchers and scriptwriters developed scripts and material suitable for television; and Ministry staff gave advice on the episodes. This is the first general history of New Zealand to appear on our screens for two decades.
In the last two years, historians in or associated with the Ministry, led by Bronwyn Dalley and Gavin McLean, developed the book to accompany the series. This lavish production, published by Hodder Moa Beckett, is the most extensively illustrated general history of New Zealand to date, with 450 images, comprising artworks, photographs, drawings, maps and cartoons. The book is designed to complement the television series, but it is also a stand-alone history that aims to provide New Zealanders with a general introduction to key themes, issues, personalities and places. Alongside the major events are some lesser-known stories that also shed interesting light on our past: the building of ports in the nineteenth century; the rise of 'picture palaces' in the 1930s; or the music festivals of the 1970s.
The 2005 Sponsorship Survey, which asks businesses and cultural organisations about their levels of and attitudes to cultural sponsorship, was conducted from 25 October to 25 November. The Ministry has previously undertaken sponsorship surveys in 1998, 2001 and 2003, and they have provided valuable information about trends in sponsorship in the arts, culture and heritage sector. Once the new survey is completed, the results will be analysed, and the report is expected to be published in early 2006.
Earlier sponsorship reports are available through the 'Publications' pages of the Ministry's website www.mch.govt.nz.
You're a New Zealander wanting to find more about a contemporary artist and where you can see her work. Or you're an overseas resident with an interest in ships and marine history. You want to locate marine museums in New Zealand and then plan your trip around your interests. Where do you start your search? Soon you'll be able to head straight for a major Ministry initiative: a cultural portal for New Zealand.
People wanting information about New Zealand's cultural offerings can have difficulty finding an entry point at present. With this in mind and the interests of New Zealand's cultural 'producers' at heart, government allocated funding through its Digital Strategy to a four-year project to develop an online tool that will meet a myriad of cultural needs.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage now has a team working to design and build a cultural portal: a one-stop site to connect New Zealanders and overseas visitors to all the highways and byways of our culture.
The portal's 'connections' will bring audiences and customers face-to-online-face with New Zealand's cultural producers, encouraging them to promote their goods, services, events, venues and activities to wider, more diverse global online audiences.
Tourism New Zealand's report on cultural tourism and this Ministry's report on cultural activities (both 2003) highlighted the need for online information. International tourists increasingly use the internet as a primary resource to plan itineraries; and they're looking for 'authentic' New Zealand cultural experiences that include a focus on people and what they do, not solely on landscapes.
But the need for a portal was also driven by growing participation in cultural activities, the rapid growth in the internet as a means of promoting knowledge, and the lack of a central co-ordinating mechanism for aspects of New Zealand culture online.
The new portal will provide that co-ordination. An early feature will be a website guide to cultural activities, facilities and events of national, regional, local, and international interest: in effect a powerful, comprehensive and up-to-date cultural compass enhanced with images, audio-visual tracks and links to resources, individuals, government agencies and groups operating within the sector.
The first phases of the portal project are due to be launched in July 2006. For the Ministry this is an exciting challenge, with great potential to connect a diverse and often resource-constrained sector.
The Ministry's website will report progress on the project – or email mary.donn@mch.govt.nz (phone 04 4966357).
In a ceremony in Wellington on 1 November 2005 the Ministry's website Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand won the BearingPoint Award for Innovation in the Public Service. The award was a tribute to the success of Te Ara, which was launched by the Prime Minister in February of this year as the world's first digitally-born national encyclopedia on the web.
At the BearingPoint awards ceremony Te Ara also received a special award in the category of Innovation in Services to Māori, in recognition of its use of Te Reo Māori as integral to its development. All the entries in Te Ara about the different iwi of New Zealand and the story of Māori arrival in Aotearoa (about half the first theme of Te Ara) are presented in both the Māori language and English. One of the judges commented that it was when she found it impossible to drag her children away from the computer after showing them Te Ara that she knew the site had to receive an award.
The innovation awards are not the first received by the project. Even before the encyclopedia was launched the Te Ara logo won a 2004 Best Design Award presented by the Designers Institute of New Zealand. Then at the same awards in 2005 Te Ara won a Best Design Award for Interactive Media and Web Design.
In May this year at the GOVIS conference Te Ara received a 'Buzzie' award for innovation in the Technology and Society category. The Buzzies are peer recognition awards by members of GOVIS (Government Information System Managers' Forum) to their colleagues.
Te Ara also won second place in the TUANZ (e)-vision Awards 2005 in the education category, and was selected as New Zealand's entry to the World Summit Awards in the culture category.
In the end the success of Te Ara will be measured less by awards, than by its use. In the nine months since the site was launched it has received over half a million visitors, and is now recording about 3,000 visits a day. It's also gratifying to have people writing to the site from around the world expressing their enthusiasm for this new way of learning about New Zealand.
Te Ara will launch the first part of its 'Places' theme in December with the release of entries on the Bay of Plenty and Northland. The next major theme, 'Earth, Sea and Sky', will follow in mid 2006 with another 118 entries on geology, marine life and people's relationship with the sky.
In preparation for the release of Te Ara's next theme on 'Earth, Sea and Sky', the encyclopedia team has been working with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) to invite New Zealanders to send in disaster stories. By early November 35 stories had been received – ranging from 14 on earthquakes and seven on tsunami to three from survivors of the Wahine sinking. Among the most interesting is the terrifying story of the engine driver on the Bay Express passenger train which was crossing the Ormondville viaduct when an earthquake struck. The best stories will be published under the heading 'What's my story?' when the theme goes live in April or May next year.
In recent years there has been a growing interest in New Zealand's history, focusing on the great sacrifice made by our servicemen and women during times of war.
On 19 November, the Prime Minister unveiled a memorial commemorating New Zealand's contribution during the Korean War. In the presence of 17 New Zealand veterans of the war, Korean dignitaries including the Minister of Defence, the Mayor of Busan and Chiefs of the Korean Army and Navy, Australian Prime Minister John Howard (in Busan for the APEC Summit), and members of the public, the memorial was dedicated to all those who had served and in particular the 45 New Zealanders who lost their lives.
The memorial is sited near the New Zealand graves in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan, Korea. The memorial was designed by the architects Warren and Mahoney, with input from artists Fred Graham and John Edgar. Made from Coromandel granite and bronze, the 2.5 metre high memorial features a design based on a female moko. A moko was traditionally a sign of adulthood, an indication that the wearer was able to bear pain and take on responsibilities. Women suffer keenly from the loss of loved ones in wartime, and here the design symbolises New Zealand as the mother of all those who served their country in wartime. Along the sides of the memorial are 45 cuts in the stone, each marking the loss to New Zealand of a serviceman. The granite was cut and polished by Trethewey Granite and Marble Limited of Auckland, the bronze plaques cast by The Heavy Metal Company foundry in Lower Hutt, and the whole 5.7 tonne memorial was flown to Korea free of charge by Korean Air.
New Zealand sent 6,000 service personnel to Korea to serve in the army and navy. The conflict lasted from June 1950 until July 1953, although some New Zealand troops stayed on for a further four years.
The memorial project was managed by the Ministry in co-operation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Defence Force, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand, and the New Zealand Korean Veterans' Association.
For news on the Ministry's other memorial projects, visit our website, www.mch.govt.nz.
Around the world, a quiet revolution is underway, as the production, transmission and viewing of television and radio content moves from analogue to digital. All very well, but so what?
Digital broadcasting means more programming can be transmitted using less bandwidth (space). Those at home will first see a proliferation of channels and then the gradual convergence of broadcasting, internet and phone technologies. In a few years, for example, you could be able to watch an episode of Frontier of Dreams at a time that suits you – on your mobile phone, through that phone to your PC or TV screen, on a digital TV channel, directly off the internet, or via a 'triple play' service, offering a combination of voice, data and video down a single broadband 'pipe' to your home. You could watch it in high definition (cinema quality) or interactively; you could record it on your hard-drive personal video recorder (PVR), and keep it in your programme database for as long as you want.
The revolution will affect all New Zealanders, who will eventually have unprecedented control over what they watch or listen to, as well as when and how they do it. While traditional broadcasters face challenges to their existing 'free-to-air' model, digital technology also presents significant opportunities.
The government's public broadcasting Programme of Action outlines six key priorities to guide the development of public broadcasting over the next few years. The successful development of digital broadcasting services is one of these priorities.
Currently digital television is only widely available in New Zealand as a subscription service. The next phase, however, will move beyond the commercial to look at the nature of public broadcasting in a digital age, in particular ensuring the benefits of public broadcasting remain freely available to all New Zealanders.
Since early 2004, the free-to-air broadcasters, led by TVNZ, have been working co-operatively to develop digital television options. Jo Tyndall from NZ On Air has joined the Ministry as Director – Digital Broadcasting Strategy on a year-long secondment. The Ministry is leading an inter-departmental group addressing the government's policy interests in digital television and co-ordinating the government's engagement with the industry.
The national Pacific radio network (NiuFM) was established as a pilot programme to link and support Pacific communities in New Zealand – thus contributing to government's goal of reducing inequalities.
NiuFM's been broadcasting successfully for three years under this pilot arrangement. Earlier this year, Cabinet agreed to continue support for the network with increased funding subject to a review now being undertaken by the Ministry.
The review will look at the most appropriate structure and broad objectives for NiuFM and ways in which it might be tied in more closely to New Zealand's public broadcasting regime. The Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs has recently begun consulting with Pacific communities on their views.
Each year the Ministry receives funding applications from community groups around the country for events to commemorate Waitangi Day. This year, the Ministry made 55 grants totalling $270,800 for events to be held on Waitangi Day 2006.
Apart from the traditional commemoration held at Waitangi itself, the events funded by the Ministry will include:
The closing date for applications to the Commemorating Waitangi Day Fund is usually at the end of September each year. Notifications, more information and application forms are available online, in the funding pages of the Ministry's website www.mch.govt.nz.
Many of the government's cultural sector programmes are delivered through non-departmental Crown entities such as Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage provides advice and support to these agencies in a number of key areas of their work. It has, for instance, recently arranged forums where agency boards and managers were able to discuss common interests and developments.
Two seminars were held to introduce cultural sector agencies to the State Services Commission's discussion paper, Integrity and Conduct – Setting Standards for Crown Entities. They looked at how Crown entities are currently managing conduct and integrity matters, discussed concerns and provided input to the Ministry's submission to the SSC.
In terms of the Crown Entities Act 2004, all Crown entities must now complete an annual Statement of Intent (SOI) – a new requirement for some of them. The Ministry has therefore run a series of workshops for Crown entities to assist them to draw up SOIs. These workshops have reviewed the way other Crown entities and departments have approached their SOIs and identified some 'good practice' ideas. For more information, email justine.wilkinson@mch.govt.nz.
The Ministry also provides ongoing support for cultural sector agencies through its Exchange intranet. Using a platform developed by the SSC's e-government unit, this intranet allows agency board members and management easy access to current news and documents, and directions to useful electronic links.
Seventeen grants were made this year, covering a wide range of subjects from dance to business history. Samoan, Chinese and Burmese migrants to New Zealand will be interviewed about their experiences here, and local histories cover such varied topics as Cook Strait whalers, Antarctica and the small Northland community of Te Rawhiti.
The launch in November of More than Law and Order: Policing a Changing Society 1945–92 brought to a close — for a time at least — one of the longest running history projects in the country. This book, written by Wellington historian Susan Butterworth, is the fifth volume in a series of policing in New Zealand produced under the auspices of the Ministry and commissioned by the Police. The series was initiated in the mid 1970s, and since then, three historians — Richard Hill, Graeme Dunstall, and now Susan Butterworth — have produced a significant body of work on policing in this country. The fifth volume looks at the modernisation of Police in the second half of the twentieth century, taking the story up to the merger of the Police with the Traffic Safety Service in 1992, and covering such topics as the impact of new technologies and managerial practices alongside some of the high-profile cases and incidents, including the Arthur Allan Thomas case and the 1981 Springbok tour.
The first in a projected two-book series of New Zealand's involvement in the Vietnam War has also been released. Roberto Rabel's New Zealand and the Vietnam War: Politics and Diplomacy examines the 'home front' during the 1960s and 1970s. Roberto considers the reasons for the New Zealand government's decision to commit troops to Vietnam. He explores the complex political and diplomatic world in which that decision was made, as well as the responses to it that sometimes involved heated protest on the part of New Zealanders opposed to the war. Ian McGibbon, the Ministry's General Editor (War History), is working on a history of New Zealand's combat involvement in the conflict.
'We just drifted away from the ship and lay there and watched as she slowly went down. She slowly filled up from the stern and the last I saw of her, from the bridge up she was vertical and she just slowly went down. In those days at least, the ship was your home, and I'll never forget the feeling when I saw my home disappear under the waves.'
Marine engineer Lionel Hodgson's recollection of the torpedoing of his ship, the SS Remuera, in 1940 is just one of the stories included in the new book edited by Neill Atkinson, Hell or High Water: New Zealand Merchant Seafarers Remember the War.
The fifth book in the Ministry's series of oral histories recounting New Zealanders' experiences during the Second World War, Hell or High Water was launched by the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, at Parliament on 31 August 2005. Ten of the 15 veterans featured in the book attended the launch, while each of the others was represented by family members. Following the launch, a number of the veterans also visited the National War Memorial.
Several thousand New Zealanders served in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War. They sailed the ships that delivered troops, military equipment and vital cargoes of food, fuel and raw materials across the world's oceans. This work was so essential to the Allies' war effort that the Merchant Navy was effectively regarded as the 'fourth service' alongside the army, navy and air force. Although they were civilians, merchant seafarers often found themselves in the front lines of the war at sea. Many ships were torpedoed or bombed; survivors sometimes spent days or weeks in lifeboats or on liferafts awaiting a rescue that might never come. More than 130 New Zealand merchant seafarers lost their lives and at least 128 were taken prisoner, many of the latter enduring great hardship in Japanese captivity.
The interview recordings have been lodged with the Alexander Turnbull Library's Oral History Centre.
