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A lament

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

This lament, ‘E pā tō hau’, was composed by Rangiamoa for her cousin Te Wano of Ngāti Apakura and Waikato. Like many such songs, it compares the tears of those mourning to rain falling from the sky. This extract includes the reference to rain.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Dinosaur finder

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Joan Wiffen stands in Mangahouanga Stream in the hills of Hawke’s Bay, where she found New Zealand’s first dinosaur fossils in 1975. Listen to her talk about her family's first visit there. Sound file from Radio New Zealand Sound ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Cardigan Bay

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Along with Phar Lap, Cardigan Bay is one of New Zealand’s most famous racehorses. Cardigan Bay was a Standardbred harness racer. In harness racing the horse pulls a two-wheeled cart, or sulky, which seats the driver. Cardigan Bay lived from 1956 to 1988, ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Centenary of the treaty signing, 1940

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi was the occasion for colourful celebrations in many parts of the country. This photo shows the regatta at Waitangi itself, with Auckland mayor Ernest Davis's yacht Moerewa and a traditional war canoe with more than 100 paddlers. ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Parihaka

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Mt Taranaki forms a dramatic backdrop to the established settlement of Parihaka, painted by George Clarendon Beale around 1881. In the 1870s Parihaka became a centre for peaceful resistance to the land confiscations that followed the Taranaki wars of the previous decade. Populated by followers of...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Chatham Islands crayfish boom

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

One of the quarrying booms in the post-war period was the crayfishing boom in the Chatham Islands. In 1964 the main fish caught around the Chathams was cod, and almost no crayfish were caught commercially. By 1968, 5,900 tons of crayfish were sent out of the Chathams, mostly for export. Howard ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Swearing-in of Sir Guy Powles

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Sir Guy Powles (left) was photographed at his swearing-in as ombudsman in 1962 with Leader of the Opposition Walter Nash, Minister of Justice Ralph Hanan and another guest. The presence of both National and Labour party politicians emphasised the bipartisan support for the office when it was ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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US–Kiwi relations

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Generally, United States soldiers based in New Zealand during the Second World War were welcomed. When the line between flirting and having sex was crossed and the soldier got VD, efforts were made to trace the woman or women involved. Listen to a nurse talk about working as a contact ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Power cuts

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Power cuts, common after the Second World War, made New Zealanders return to old habits and take on new ones. This photograph shows people queuing to buy kerosene lamps during power restrictions in 1956. The lamps had been the standard source of light in New Zealand homes until the early 20th ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Little owl

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Originally introduced from Germany, little owls are now established in the South Island. They are found mainly in flat pastoral country, especially on the east coast, while the native morepork is found more commonly on the west coast.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Riroriro (grey warbler) and nest

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The position of the riroriro’s nest was said to indicate the prevailing wind – the bird always placed the entrance away from the wind. Listen to the riroriro’s call. Like the pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoo), the riroriro’s call signalled the ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Anti-tour march, 1981

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Banner-bearing protestors filled the streets of New Zealand on numerous occasions in 1981. In that year, for the first time since 1965, the government agreed to a tour by a racially-selected Springbok team. These banners in Wellington's Willis Street indicate that the tour was opposed by a broad ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Rainbow Warrior sunk at dock

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

On the evening of 10 July 1985, the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior was blown up by limpet mines while berthed in Auckland Harbour. This was the scene soon after the explosion. The mines turned out to have been planted by French secret agents. In a recording made on the sixth anniversary...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Perano whaling

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Five generations of Heberleys hunted whales. The last two were Charlie Heberley and his son Joe who worked at the Perano whaling station at the entrance to Tory Channel. In the sound clip they recall the excitement and danger of those days. The image from June 1952 shows workers at the ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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When to plant and fish

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Traditionally, Māori measured time according to the nights rather than the days. Nightly cycles began with the new moon. Each night of a lunar month was named and described according to how favourable or unfavourable it was for fishing, eeling or planting. Te Matarēhua Wikiriwhi describes how M...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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A food for all seasons

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

This song ‘Ngā wehenga o te tau’ (the seasons) recalls the various types of traditional work for each season. Different types of food were collected according to the time of year; however, aruhe (fern root), shown piled up, was a reliable year-round staple. Sound file from

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Black stilts in flight

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

This pair of black stilts is flying above the Cass Valley in the Mackenzie Basin, one of their last strongholds. They breed in isolation on the banks above river braids, or nearby side streams and wetlands. The shallow edges are where they search for food, ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Flock of bar-tailed godwits

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

A large flock of godwits settles on the shelly beach of Miranda, on the Firth of Thames coast near Auckland. Eastern bar-tailed godwits arriving from Alaska need to feed intensively to replace the reserves lost during their long flight. They also need to ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Heather Nicholson

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Geologist Heather Nicholson stands in front of greywacke outcrops on Waiheke Island, near Auckland. In 1953 she wrote her master’s thesis on the island’s geology and in 2003, exactly 50 years later, she submitted her PhD thesis with the title, ‘The ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Drying fish

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

This 1843 watercolour, by an unknown artist, depicts Māori drying fish on poles. The fish appear to be mainly barracouta, with a few rays and snapper. Māori were not preservationists; they conserved resources so that they could use them in the future. Fishing pressure may have affected fish ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage