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Dalmatian card game

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

These Dalmatian gum diggers are enjoying a card game – probably on a Sunday. Most of them worked six days a week and spent Sundays playing games and relaxing. Listen to ‘Song of the digger’, a traditional New Zealand folk song. Sound file from

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Baited longlines

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

In longline fishing, very long lines are strung with many baited hooks and drawn through the water. Malcolm Harrison, an Auckland longline fisherman, talks about landing snapper and gurnard in the late 1950s. Sound file from

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Gathering shellfish

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

These members of the Te Āti Awa iwi (tribe) are collecting shellfish from the Taranaki coast. In the early 1980s a synthetics fuel plant at Motunui, near Waitara, was set to pump industrial and sewage waste into the sea. Local Te Āti Awa objected, making ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Mervyn Thompson performs Coaltown blues

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Mervyn Thompson was born at Kaitangata in 1936 and spent most of his early years on the West Coast. He worked for five years as a miner, and later he became a distinguished actor, playwright and director. In the play Coaltown blues, he relived the poverty and struggles of his boyhood. ...

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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Te Hoata and Te Pupu bring fire

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

When Ngātoroirangi had just arrived in New Zealand from Hawaiki, he was overcome by extreme cold at a place called Onetapu. He called out to his sisters Te Hoata and Te Pupu, who sped to him from Hawaiki in the form of fire. When they emerged above ground they created the geysers, hot pools and ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Europa petrol station

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

During the 1930s, Europa was one of the brand names under which imported petrol was sold to New Zealand motorists. This radio jingle was used to advertise the fuel to motorists. Sound file from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Graduate Choir

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The Graduate Choir was established in 2001 from former students of Aorere College and comprises 35 singers. Most have recently graduated from apprenticeship choirs, and are beginning their singing careers. In this clip the choir is singing ‘Minoi Minoi...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Brakemen

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

In 1904, this tramway at Maropiu, Northland, had such a steep grade it required a brakeman riding on each bogie (small cart). They both wound hand cranks that pressed board brakes onto the faces of each wheel. It was very dangerous work. On a nearby tram in that same year, a brakeman was crushed ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Brown creeper with chick

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Brown creepers (pīpipi) move about in groups in the forest and scrub, calling to each other constantly as they hunt for food. Like yellowheads and whiteheads, they have sweet, melodious calls. Sound file from Birds of New Zealand. Compact disc. © Viking Sevenseas NZ, 1980 (PO ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Brunner mine disaster, 1896

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The photograph shows one of the first bodies to be recovered from the Brunner mine. The worst loss of life in New Zealand mining occurred at this mine on 26 March 1896. An explosion was heard at 9.30 a.m. Two men went underground to investigate and were ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Coromandel Harbour, 1852

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

When gold was discovered on the Coromandel Peninsula in 1852, Europeans met with Māori to discuss mining and prospecting their lands. In this 1940s interview John Edgar (born in 1874) talks about Māori attitudes towards mining. Sound file from

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Living in a bush camp

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Living conditions in a typical bush camp were crowded. Often a gang of men slept and ate in one large hut. Around the edge were two tiers of bunks, while a large table dominated the centre of the room. As well as being used for meals, it was a place to play cards, read, write letters and talk.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Fishing boats, Milford Sound

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

A few commercial fishermen operate out of Milford Sound, where their main catches are blue cod, crayfish and pāua (abalone). It is a harsh environment to work in. In this sound clip, a local fisherman describes conditions at the mouth of a fiord after ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Pick-and-shovel mining

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

These West Coast miners from the end of the 19th century pause in their labours. The traditional technique for extracting coal, which miners brought from Britain, depended entirely on muscle power. Miners chopped out coal with picks and then shovelled it ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Te Au-o-Tonga and Te Aurere off the East Coast, 2000

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The successes of the Hōkūle‘a led to a renaissance in Polynesian navigation and the sailing of traditional craft. Other vessels were built. Te Aurere (right), pictured here with Te Au-o-Tonga, was built by Hector Busby in 1991. The following year Te Aurere ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Abortion-rights march

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

With the eruption of furious debate and activism related to abortion both in and outside Parliament in the 1970s, abortion-rights marches became common. This march was in 1973. Listen to a segment from a radio documentary made that year, which includes arguments between those for and against ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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Votes for women

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The campaign for women's suffrage was led by Kate Sheppard (shown here on a stamp, which depicts a detail of the $10 note). Listen to the reminiscences of Mrs Perryman, who voted in the 1893 election (the first in which women could). Sound file from

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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'No Maoris, no tour', 1960

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

A massive protest campaign developed against the proposed 1960 All Black tour of South Africa, since Māori players were banned from the team. The protests were organised by the Citizens All Black Tour Association (CABTA), chaired by Rolland O'Regan of Ngāi Tahu. This poster announces a CABTA ...

Ministry for Culture and Heritage
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School milk

Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Free milk was provided to school children from 1937 to 1967. These children are drinking their milk in about 1939. Listen to comedian John Clarke's funny take on school milk, in the persona of farmer Fred Dagg. Sound file courtesy of John Clarke

Ministry for Culture and Heritage