Museums Aotearoa 2013 conference
10 April 2013
Collated feedback from discussions following WW100 presentation
Community involvement
National project (could include a roadshow) to gather stories and digitise photos and other
objects from private collections (models: Antique Roadshow without the valuations, The Last
Picture Show; New Zealand museums’ “Recollect” programme). This would find, tell and
preserve family and local stories.
Give advice on preservation and digitisation (National Services Te Paerangi)
Photo boards, physical and online; can you identify these people?
Feedback/comment boards; either physical or online, to encourage dialogue and debate.
Family history workshops focused around the First World War.
Last chance to get oral histories of those who remember family returning from the war.
Community forums, lectures or debates, e.g. on the meaning of memory and
commemorations.
Contemporary jewellery.
Poppy exhibition
Broaden emphasis beyond military
Home: the people left behind
Stories about and by women, conscientious objectors. Rehabilitation stories.
Significant scientific or other inventions.
Profile of Māori in New Zealand society.
Museums and exhibitions
Public access to First World War collections in museums; searchable databases (Vernon
data management tool).
Online exhibitions — museum or community-driven.
Exhibitions: to include pre-1914 activities.
Develop collections by receiving donations of material.
Exhibitions can include or be supplemented by oral family history, publications, YouTube
clips, blogs, websites, tweeted diaries. Also personal profiles (e.g. photographs, and
biographical information on panels; searchable touchscreens linked to databases).
Outreach: public talks, community talks, open days.
Multicultural voices and stories.
Sustainable planning of exhibits —maintaining interest and momentum over the period and
beyond.
Start now.
Second World War anniversaries will overlap with First World War centenary — opportunities
for leverage and dangers of ‘competition’.
Link local programmes to national initiatives. Avoid replication.
Data visualisation — geotagging locations of those who fought and died.
Small museums — remote locations.
Ideas from particular museums:
North Otago Museum. Memorial oaks link with Cenotaph database and WW100 programme.
Two exhibitions: 2014 and 2018. Looking at the same people in 1914 and 1918 from our
community and their stories pre- and post-war, book launch for First World War-themed
North Otago publication.
National Services Te Paerangi. Sub-community of the NZ Museums website for museums to
share their First World War-related collection materials and stories; raise awareness of the
WW100 programme through the Development Officer service; interpretation of research
leading to exhibitions workshops for museums.
Wellington Museums. Capital E theatre. Strike of 1913; Adkins. Wellington-based Museum
of City and Sea Alexander Turnbull Library. Fuchs conscientious objector (WWI & WWII).
Museum memorial upgrade.
Alexander Turnbull Library. Digitising sheet music, war diaries, war stories, children’s
experience of war.
South Canterbury. What individuals thought of going to war.
Military history
Military re-enactments in 2015.
“Military month” — a short term focus.
Military support: nurses, surgeons, dentists, merchant navy, uniforms.
Profile of Māori in military.
Heritage trails in New Zealand.
Animal stories (the last big war for horses).
WW100 programme management
Need a phased or staggered approach to avoid fatigue.
Transparency and accountability about funding.
Ideas: youth advisory groups; using media such as Tumblr and Pinterest; exploring issues
leading up to the war.
Commemoration
Local authorities taking responsibility for coordination of events. Anzac Day, for example, is
a civic service.
Commemorative plantings: where they are?
Theme song, concerts, releases on web, performing arts — commission a piece. Sheet
music in Turnbull? Parliamentary Library?
Education
There should be a strong focus on schools.
Staggered educational programme, in different years (e.g. 2014, 20150 different levels have
a focus (e.g. Year 13, Year 12 does) so the theme can be woven through all the curriculum.
Dearth of audiovisual material from the First World War compared with the Second World
War means that WWII has a higher profile for young people.
Gap in education circa 90s, 2000s — history class focused on the lead-up to 1914.
Other
What about our contribution to the Boer War?