A numbing experience

Last week Waikato District Council distributed its November 2017 LINK Newsletter in the rural mail. Pages 1 & 7 featured photos and text of ‘‘young students catching a glimpse of the past’’. They were from Te Rapa School and Horotiu School and were taken on a tour by Waikato District Council staff, contractors and archaeologists. These children do not realise how privileged they were to be involved with the heritage of their area .

This is in complete contrast to how our adult educated family members were treated when our early European rural heritage at ‘‘The Anchorage’’ was ‘‘taken’’, some destroyed, other removed and on-sold, for the Cambridge Bypass. We were not included, yet, had always sought inclusion over a long period, and tried every possible avenue for this to be so.

Reasons given for not being included were always varied like: ‘‘access not agreeable’’, ‘‘it is a controlled construction site’’, ‘‘archaeologists are undertaking undisturbed’’, ‘‘request through your solicitor’’.

One would expect this withholding of information from a dictatorial regime in a third world country. However, this was in our ‘‘heritage’’ town, involving our own knowledgeable people who were supposed to be, ‘‘client focused’’ and offering the highest possible level of support.

Trish Nicholl

Cambridge