A SPECIAL YEAR
1869 was a momentous year.
As well as the founding of the University of Otago, many other significant historical events occurred, including the first issue of the journal Nature; the publication of the periodic table; the opening of the Suez Canal; the birth of Frances Hodgkins; and Te Kooti’s escape from the siege of Ngā Tapa Pā.
To mark the importance of the year, from 25-29 September Otago’s Centre for Research on Colonial Culture and the Australasian Victorian Studies Association are co-sponsoring a conference on the theme of 1869. At the same time, the University is hosting the Town and Gown Heritage Festival in partnership with the Southern Heritage Trust.
Headlining the programme is Dr Helen Pearson, Chief Magazine Editor of Nature, the world’s leading science journal. Dr Pearson will give a public lecture on Thursday 26 September from
6-7pm at St David Lecture Theatre, talking about the journal’s rich history and its continued mission to serve the global research community.
Other key speakers include Professor Marion Thain, Professor of Literature and Culture at King’s College London; Megan Potiki, Coordinator of Te Tumu’s Master of Indigenous Studies programme and Tilly Boleyn from Science Gallery Melbourne.
Author Tina Makereti, and Lisa Chatfield, producer of the BBC adaption of The Luminaries, are among speakers at a public lecture on Wednesday evening discussing Heritage in Words, Pictures and Threads.
The Heritage Festival has a full programme of public events, including heritage walks on campus and around Dunedin’s shoreline, guided tours of the W.D. Trotter Anatomy Museum and a gala dinner at Larnach Castle. An archaeological open
The University’s Clocktower Building in spring
day is being held and the Geology Museum will also be open.
On Sunday 29 September, the annual Tweed Ride will take place from the Gasworks Museum to the University Clocktower Building at 10am, and in the afternoon, the Philip Neill Memorial Concert will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral, at 3pm.
The University’s Philip Neill Memorial Prize in Music was established in 1943 in memory of the late Philip Foster Neill and is New Zealand’s longest running composition prize. The concert features performances of eight prize winners from the past, including the very first winner, Douglas Lilburn’s Prelude and Fugue for organ, played by Simon Mace.