Museum’s 50 years of moves and memorabilia
Weatherboards emblazoned with a Kodak sign are nearly all that’s left of the original building where a collection that morphed into South Taranaki’s district museum was housed.
Aotea Utanganui – Museum of South Taranaki in Pātea will celebrate its 50th anniversary at Anzac Weekend, and plans are underway for a gathering at 2pm, the same time it opened back in 1974 in a former photographic studio.
The South Taranaki District Museum Trust’s longest-serving trustee is Jim Baker, whose father Livingstone Baker founded the museum.
Much has changed over the years, as the collection grew and moved, and became the district museum, run by the South Taranaki District Museum Trust in partnership with the South Taranaki District Council.
The trust’s Jim Baker laughingly described his own lifelong interest in history as a ‘genetic defect’.
“Dad was the driving force for the Pātea Historical Society, which started in 1967.”
The original building belonged to his uncle, Henry Harrison Parker (known as Harry), Baker said. He offered it to the Scouts, but they turned it down, so he offered it to the historical society.
A few years later, the museum moved to different buildings on its current site. When the original building was demolished, they salvaged the weatherboards with the Kodak sign, and the floorboards, which were reused in the current building’s foyer.
In a way, it had come full circle, with a collection of Scouting memorabilia from the late Mia Aarts, a well known local Scout leader, on display.
The current museum building opened in 2011, and a new $1.2 million building beside it was completed last year. Some of the collection which had been in storage was being moved into the new building, which will be opened later this year, museum collections assistant Rob Groat said.
It took 15 Pātea volunteer fire brigade members about three hours to heave an old 1940s vintage fire engine into its new place, Groat, who is also a member of the brigade, said. The old engine was originally used at the Pātea Freezing works.
The 50th celebration comes as the trust has been rejuvenated with seven new members, after dwindling to just two, due to members retiring. “It came close to the council being required to take over the administration of the museum,” trust chairman Mark Nicholas said.
Fortunately, seven new trustees had stood for nomination, and he was still looking for more people to join the trust.