Archive for December, 2008

The launch last week of Sir Donald McLean’s papers has concluded a busy few weeks for the National Library, which also joined Flickr’s Commons project and released (in partnership with organisations throughout the country) the DigitalNZ project (blogged previously at Digital New Zealand brings mashups to metadata).

McLean’s papers are hugely significant and one of the most important records from the time. He was the Chief Land Purchase officer during the years leading up to the 1860s land wars, first Native Secretary and, later, Native Minister up until just before his death in 1877. Throughout his career he documented and kept records of his activities and correspondence, generating over 100,000 pages of diaries, correspondence, letterbooks, telegrams and other papers.

To celebrate, we’re giving away a copy of Ray Fargher’s biography of McLean, The Best Man Who Ever Served the Crown?

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Pōhutukawa and Rātā are the party animals of New Zealand’s native flora, and not just because they bloom during the festive season.

According to Philip Simpson, a botanist and a founding member of Project Crimson, the brilliant red flowers of New Zealand’s very own Christmas trees set them apart from other flowering natives.

“Red is an unusual colour for New Zealand,” he says. “Pōhutukawa and Rātā are nectar-producing trees, and the red flowers are an attractant for birds. They don’t hide their colour away like a lot of other New Zealand trees, which tend to release their fragrance at night and are often pollinated by moths.

“Pōhutukawa and Rātā are very blatant. The red is spectacular, and they do it all at once – it’s boom or bust.”

But while the trees, which are closely related, once grew throughout the country in vast forests that flowered between November and February, that is no longer the case. Their numbers have been ravaged by both humans and possums, and only a few remnants of pōhutukawa and rātā forest remain.

Read the rest of this NZLive.com featured article here.

Recently I ran a session on NZLive at the National Digital Forum. As I explained to the audience, who I hope forgave me, my preparation for the session had started life as a presentation then morphed into a workshop, before trying at the last minute to become a demonstration. It didn’t matter so much in the end – the tight timeframe meant a quick run through of what the site is about and our current plans filled the 15 minute slot pretty well. There was also one stand-out reason for not spending too much time demonstrating the site: we’re thinking of changing it. Not only are we thinking of change but we’re keen to get people on-board to inform and influence how we change it.

So we’re doing two things:  a survey and inviting suggestions for what to change.

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by Chantal Knowles, Principal Curator (Oceania, Americas and Africa) for the National Museum of Scotland

Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, the National Museum of Scotland incorporates two wonderful buildings – one modern, the other a grand Victorian building known as the Royal Museum building. Currently the Royal Museum project, a £46.4 million initiative, is underway to transform and revitalise this iconic building into a modern, 21st century museum. This is a three-year project and will create 16 new galleries with a focus on World Cultures and the Natural World, reopening in 2011.

One of these new galleries will be dedicated to the Pacific Ocean – exploring life, culture and the islands of the Pacific. A centrepiece of this new Pacific gallery will be a pre-1850s Māori waka.

The waka presents a mystery to us! In a poor state of repair, and at only 20 feet in length it is a composite canoe. The hull is from a river boat and the side strakes were taken from a full length war canoe, cut and shaped to fit. Finally a prow was carved to scale. The carvings on some parts suggest it came from the Bay of Plenty region. The original stern post is missing and instead there is a 19th century museum repair.

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