Welcome to Trailblazers and Troublemakers

Nature Boy by Shaun Higgins

Sand, surf and seabirds held a special fascination for Olaf Petersen. On his favourite place, the west coast of Auckland, he said ‘every time, provided you look for it there is something new.’ Growing up in Swanson and inspired by the morning mist on his farm, Petersen spent a life time photographing the outdoors, filling the frame with both natural and human subjects and returning to his favourite places for more. A two day pattern in the towering dunes at Wainamu, a sunlit path through wet sand a Pouto, they pulled at his imagination in pursuit of a ‘mood’. He took the Auckland Camera Club to Te Henga in 1943 to show them his world. He won the Davies Natural History award for I’m Late, and published a scientific study of the spotted shag. With the Auckland University Field Club he began to travel all over the country to remote offshore islands where tuatara would climb into sleeping bags and sell photographs to the Weekly News. Photographer and friend Alan Warren called him ‘Nature Boy’. 

Lady Barbara Harvey –  long serving committee member of the Friends of Waikumete – will touch on the activities of this group aiming to turn Waikumete Cemetery into the beautiful memorial park it could be. The formation of the Friends, activities we have carried out,  the frustrations encountered by lack of finances to preserve the rapidly disappearing history of the cemetery.

In 2022, Corban Estate Arts Centre observes its 20th Anniversary as one of Aotearoa’s largest thriving creative hubs. The Corban Estate art community will also be celebrating that the estate has recently gained entry to the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 1 historic place. Queue the fanfare! Amidst the revelry, however, a collection of buildings on the Estate are currently undergoing seismic strengthening, which has brought about both unforeseen challenges as well as some silver linings along the way. Recently appointed Director Luana Walker takes us on a quick trip through the highs and lows of managing the disruption, temporary displacement and potentially ‘boring’ restoration that comes with earthquake-proofing an operational building.

While Ceramic House can be appreciated as one of the best examples of Neville Price’s architecture, it can also be seen as representing an economic, social and cultural paradise lost. When the building opened in May 1969, Crown Lynn’s ceramic design standards were rapidly rising and its factory output was approaching its peak. Two decades later the company closed its doors. Is its heritage simply to be enjoyed through the timeless modernism of its administrative architecture and the enduring attraction of the ever-diminishing supply of Crown Lynn crockery, or are there lessons to be learned from a rare opportunity squandered?

After many years of ‘slow cooking’ the Shadbolt House story is one of triumph. Purchased in 2004 by Waitākere Council with the intent to set up a writers residency in Maurice Shadbolt’s name, it has survived through amalgamation and subsequent years of negotiation; and now to an Agreement to Lease from Auckland Council. Consistent support from the Waitākere Ranges Local Board and the determined efforts of the Going West Trust have been key to this success. We will report in on the restoration project and residency plans. Another site of cultural heritage will be saved and contribute to the arts precinct of Titirangi.

 After 20 years planning for the building of a new state-of-the-art clubhouse at Karekare, the club needed a very special welcoming statement. The club asked local iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki if a large pou could be that tohu. It received a blessing to do just that. This is the long history in totara by young Ranui carver Mihaka Matatara of the epic past and survival (1825 to 2022) of the iwi, told by Sir Bob Harvey, the club president and historian, in video and pictures, together with a poem written and read by Sam Sampson.

Sarah Buxton is the coordinator of the Charlotte Museum in New Lynn. A museum collecting, preserving and exhibiting the her-story lesbian sapphic, our diverse communities and the lesbian cultural experience in Aotearoa. The Charlotte Museum is the only museum of its type in the world and includes wide ranging, diverse collections, a research library and archive and art collection. Sarah will be doing a quick presentation on the origins of the museum, the museum’s collections and the projects the museum is currently involved with.

Sue Berman is a Principal Advisor Oral History with the Auckland Libraries Heritage team. Sue’s love of oral history comes from her keen interest in peoples lived experiences and for recording lesser heard voices on topics of everyday social history.
Join Sue Berman for a quick fire session on how accessing oral histories and sound archives can help deepen and enrichen research and understanding of our heritage.

Anna Fomison, chair of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society, will be presenting “Making a Stand” the latest book on the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Act – a milestone in the life of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society. It is written by Wayne Thompson and published by Oratia Media as an e-book. “Making a Stand” tells of dedicated efforts by several generations of volunteers and experts in ensuring the Ranges can survive and thrive. Wayne, a former reporter for the New Zealand Herald, covered the citizen movement for permanent protection of the Ranges, his favourite place for recreation.

Inspiration for the Te Henga Signs Kiosk sprang from the community consultations around the Te Henga Reserve Management Plan (2001) and the Local Area Plan drawn up in 2015 under the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act 2008. In 2016 we formed a team of five who love the wild and wonderful place we all call home, to turn this policy into reality. Six years of sustained effort later, in June this year, we made it to the finish line – the kelp-cutting celebration to open the Te Henga Signs kiosk. This is our story.

Hearing Through the Image: Tales from a Bush-elicited Modernism
The talk explores the oral histories of women who lived in modernist houses in Titirangi, Auckland in the 1960s and my personal creative response through body adornment. The oral capture of these histories allow us to better understand their lived experience and the nature of the spatial settings they found themselves in.
The domestic situation is that provided by the modernist housing that became associated with the Auckland bush clad topography of suburban Titirangi. What the oral histories and personal photos of the women who occupied these houses suggests an actively lived experience divergent from objectification and decoration.
On the bush-clad slopes of Titirangi, the lived experience of domestic International Style modernism mostly eluded the media gaze. Further, the Titirangi community was intellectually sophisticated and appreciative of the arts. Neighbours joined in merging the new architectural language with other aspects of the arts such as painting, sculpture, furniture, ceramics, writing and weaving. I aim to rearticulate what images silence and what in turn can be heard anew in proximity to them.

Isabel Woods was an adventurer and an avid tramper. For a while, she went into the Waitākere wilderness most weekends.

As a young woman she was also an unobtrusive observer and an avid recorder. She was prolific as an image-maker, yet we only have copies of her work – no originals. The people and places she captured through tricks of light and dark, live on in our archives, though her story is absent.

In this short session we will introduce you to an overlooked westward-leaning, trailblazer.

Christina Jensen (Isabel’s daughter) and Michelle Edge

Sand, surf and seabirds held a special fascination for Olaf Petersen. On his favourite place, the west coast of Auckland, he said ‘every time, provided you look for it there is something new.’ Growing up in Swanson and inspired by the morning mist on his farm, Petersen spent a life time photographing the outdoors, filling the frame with both natural and human subjects and returning to his favourite places for more. A two day pattern in the towering dunes at Wainamu, a sunlit path through wet sand a Pouto, they pulled at his imagination in pursuit of a ‘mood’. He took the Auckland Camera Club to Te Henga in 1943 to show them his world. He won the Davies Natural History award for I’m Late, and published a scientific study of the spotted shag. With the Auckland University Field Club he began to travel all over the country to remote offshore islands where tuatara would climb into sleeping bags and sell photographs to the Weekly News. Photographer and friend Alan Warren called him ‘Nature Boy’.