‘Important to share, learn and protect our history’
"We feel we made some contacts and connections, and there is definitely an interest. We would be keen to do it again next year. I think it has a lot of potential."
All sorts of treasures and beloved family items with special stories and histories were shared at the Rotorua Heritage Road Show. For the third annual He Kete Rau Mahara Local Heritage Week, Rotorua Library, Te Aka Mauri lined up a community-wide celebration of the unique history and heritage of Rotorua.
The celebrations have included talks, group events, children’s activities, and the museum’s special collections tour to name a few.
Rotorua’s Local Heritage Week 2022 began on Monday and runs until Sunday.
The Rotorua Heritage Road Show was where Rotorua & District Historical Society invited people to bring in a historical item and talk to their members about it. It was not about putting a monetary value to the item, but more about sharing the stories behind it.
Chriss Taylor is a collector of old things and took along a gramophone he had found dumped out at Rotoiti in the 1980s.
“Everyone had them in the house back in the day... even now you see them in antique shops.
“They’re not worth a lot, they are very common, but people would have taken them on picnics and down to the beach. They are great fun and play really well.”
Chriss demonstrated the gramophone playing a record to those who were there.
“Especially young people want to see how it goes. It’s great for young people to find out more about this sort of stuff.”
Peggy Wilson brought along an ink and watercolour painting that is special to her family.
“My mother bought this for me as a housewarming present because that is one of our vehicles from our company Wilson Electrix featured in it.”
Peggy says she happened to be walking past a gallery when she spotted the painting by Beverley Ray of Fenton St shops and noticed the vehicle happened to be in it - “I mentioned it to mum and she bought it for us”.
She says she now keeps the painting up in her hallway, and it will be a family heirloom.
Ursula Prince took along her two beloved wine glasses that were a wedding present for her parents in Germany in 1928.
She says after the war, “when money didn’t mean anything and food meant everything”, her parents sold 10 of the glasses from a set of 12 and kept these two to enjoy using.
“They passed them on to me, and I brought them to New Zealand and enjoyed using them with my husband.”
She says she is going to keep the tradition going of passing the glass-blown Romer wine glasses down in the family.
When asked what some of the things she loved about the glasses were, Ursula said that they made a beautiful sound when you clink them together, as well as the delicate carvings on them.
She says it is important to share and learn about history, to help keep stories alive and make sure they are not lost.
Rotorua & District Historical Society committee member Silke Hackbarth says the event went well considering this was its first time and they had not known what to expect.
“Especially in the morning we had a few people coming in, and there were all sorts of items.”
She says some other items that came through included old, hand-coloured photos of Rotorua, an old Totara post which was part of an old water supply system that went through Hemo Gorge, and an old Ma¯ori pigeon trough which the Rotorua Museum education team had been very interested in.
There were also metal objects one lady
brought in that had been dug up in her garden, which the society’s president recognised as the handles of an old
bathtub, she says.
“We feel we made some contacts and connections, and there is definitely an interest. We would be keen to do it again next year. I think it has a lot of potential.”
There are still a couple of events this weekend for Local Heritage Week, and today there is a free O¯ hinemutu talk at Rotorua Library from 10am to 11am, and a free public talk called “Stories Behind the Name: The Journey of Ihenga by Ringori Te Ao” presented by Ben Manley from 12.15pm to 1pm at the Rotorua Library.
Tomorrow there is also a Lego Landmarks session from 10.30am to 12pm in the Makerspace at Rotorua Library.
Children can create a Rotorua icon from LEGO, such as a geyser, a building, a tourist attraction, or a person.
A koha is appreciated and bookings are required.
On Sunday, there is a Heritage Week Steam Day at Rotorua Settlers & Steam Museum, Te Amorangi.
The Steam Day runs from 10am to 4pm, and people can see eight working steam engines powered by steam from an 8hp boiler, which visitors get to see in action on this special Steam Day.
■ Steam Day entry for adults is $10 and children under 16 are free. For more information go to www.rotorualibrary. govt.nz.