Auckland War Memorial Museum Under Threat From Within

[McFly]

Auckland War Memorial Museum plans to shift from ‘colonial museum’ to ‘Te Tiriti-led museum’



Auckland War Memorial Museum plans to shift from ‘colonial museum’ to ‘Te Tiriti-led museum’ (link)
20 Feb, 2024

The Auckland War Memorial Museum plans to move from what it describes as a “colonial museum” to “a Te Tiriti-led museum” which will operate as a social impact organisation.

Its draft annual plan, The Path to 2029, says the change will involve a move from “seeing ourselves primarily as an expert and keeper of knowledge and collections ... to a time when more collections may be repatriated, and the care of those items may be shared”. “The first shift sees us move from a colonial Museum to a Te Tiriti-led Museum,” the plan reads. ”This builds upon our bicultural foundation, which in our context recognises Māori as Tangata Whenua. The other strand is Tangata Tiriti – the people of the Treaty – which includes all other cultures and communities that now call Aotearoa New Zealand home by virtue of the Treaty. This approach includes everyone.”

The path will also include the development of a policy and an approach of proactive repatriation of taonga. The museum confirmed to ZB Plus that repatriation would include more than human remains. “We anticipate repatriating other taonga, not just human remains, as has been our practice for many years,” a spokesperson said. “The change ... is to be more transparent with communities about our work in this area and understanding the barriers to requests for repatriations. This is in line with what many museums worldwide are doing. We are keeping up with a global professional shift.“

Auckland Museum was established in 1852 and when the building in the Domain was opened in 1929, it became Auckland War Memorial Museum. “It remains an encyclopaedic museum with a wide range of topics within its scope, and includes particular galleries and programmes focused on war history,” the spokesperson continued. The Auckland War Memorial Museum plans to move from what it describes as a “colonial museum” to “a Te Tiriti-led museum”. “It is a simple fact of the museum’s history that it was born in colonial times, and this context has influenced its character and make-up. “There has been some thoughtful discussion recently on the role of museums in general, and the ownership of objects that may have been acquired without proper permission many years in the past. Museums around the world have their legacies rooted in colonialism, and this is an important and ongoing conversation for us to be part of.”

The plan was adopted for consultation on December 7 and published on January 15. It is due to be adopted in April and is due to be reviewed at a board meeting on February 29. Public submissions have now closed. Anyone who has made a submission is invited to appear and be heard in relation to their submission on February 29, 2024, at Auckland Museum.

The museum is subject to the Auckland War Memorial Museum Act 1996 which provides for the maintenance, management, development, ownership, and funding of the Auckland War Memorial Museum and its contents.

[Dave Homewood]

What is this clownery?

[30sqnatc]

Academic mumbo jumbo

[McFly]

Feb 20, 2024 16:14:42 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

What is this clownery?

I vote they should return the Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero-sen 22 back to Japan... (link)

[chrisr]

You just wait, they will scrap it and the Spitfire.

[corsairarm]

Feb 20, 2024 16:57:34 GMT 12 McFly said:

Feb 20, 2024 16:14:42 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

What is this clownery?

I vote they should return the Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero-sen 22 back to Japan... (link)

Nope
My father was there when it was flown into Jacquinot Bay.
If anywhere it could go to Wigram or MoTaT

[oj]

On a very serious note, this will allow them to completely obliterate or destroy the hugely important historical evidence of pre-Maori occupation of NZ contained therein.
Evidence that has been embargoed for years from anyone investigating the topic; access denied, period.

[johnnyfalcon]

Feb 20, 2024 18:53:41 GMT 12 corsairarm said:

Feb 20, 2024 16:57:34 GMT 12 McFly said:

I vote they should return the Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero-sen 22 back to Japan... (link)

Nope
My father was there when it was flown into Jacquinot Bay.
If anywhere it could go to Wigram or MoTaT

Wigram gets my vote, a much more appropriate venue in my opinion

[gibbo]

This woke nonsense is inceasingly common overseas but so far we seem to escaped the worst of it's ravages ...the Akl Museum is bloody fantastic as it is & we don't need it turned into an attempt at social engineering ... Wigram for the zero (RNZAF gifted it didn't they?) & Keith Park would've been happy to see MOTAT get the Spitty as WIgram as a similar (same?) model. Friggin nonsense!  Overseas some collections have been decimated by this approach.

[l29]

Well that's them Fu*ked isn't it.

[davidd]

The (three) Zeros seen at Jacquinot Bay were the later model 52s; the one now in the Museum came from south Bougainville by ship.

[corsairarm]

I just remember my father telling me that 3 aircraft were flown in. A Zero a Dinah and a Jake. He had photos of the first two which I may still have somewhere. The Zero was shipped back to NZ. The other two were left behind. He never said any thing about 3 Zeros.

[obiwan27]

Feb 20, 2024 22:51:01 GMT 12 l29 said:

Well that's them Fu*ked isn't it.

Yes - anything described with the words " ‘Te Tiriti-led " is code for the woke cultural revolution that NZ & Western nations in their own form, have been undergoing for the past few years.

Refer to Chinese Cultural Revolution as historic example of same.

www.britannica.com/event/Cultural-Revolution/Rise-and-fall-of-Lin-Biao-1969-71

Woke University students, teachers, university lecturers and their bedfellows in left wing politics are the NZ version of the 'Red guard'.

[Antonio]

Okay.
As I understand it we should be VERY concerned for the future of the Zero and Spitfire. Yes.
I not the comments re Zero to the AFM and Spitfire to MoTaT - we can only hope that common sense will prevail.
Then there is the small issue of the V1 replica....

But more of a concern is what happens to the current Online Cenotaph!
Is that also under threat?

Also what about the impressive research library?

Dunno if I have the right to ask question such as these - challenging those in charge - being a lowly 2nd class citizen of European descent.

[gibbo]

On reflection I dout they can move awy from the War Memorial status it has & is likely obliged to, so it maybe that the top floor military colelction must remain... not that I'm confident they wouldn't try to dump it. It's a good point though about the research collections & screeds of donated papers that could be at risk.

[30sqnatc]

Who's got a big spanner so the forecourt guns can be turned around to face inwards and prevent exhibits departing.


The artillery that sits proudly outside Auckland War Memorial Museum, situated on either side of the Court of Honour, are in fact 4-inch Mark VII naval guns that serve as reminders of New Zealand’s contribution to World War One at sea. They are two of the sixteen which once saw service on the famous battlecruiser HMS New Zealand.

Commissioned in 1912, HMS New Zealand was paid for by the people of New Zealand and presented as a gift to Great Britain and the Royal Navy. During World War One it saw service in all the major naval battles of the North Sea, Heligoland Bight (1914), Dogger Bank (1915) and most significantly Jutland (1916). Yet, she was thought of as a lucky ship and sustained only slight damage throughout her war service and with no casualties.

The guns were made by Elswick Ordnance Company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, in 1911. Each measure 5.3m in length and weigh 2,126kg. A well-trained gun crew could fire between six and eight 14kg explosive shells per minute. Following the scrapping of HMS New Zealand in 1922, many of the ship’s 4-inch guns were installed in forts across New Zealand as saluting guns. On Saturday 23rd November 1929, two guns that had been in service at North Head on the north shore of the Waitemata Harbour, were installed on the front terrace of the new Auckland War Memorial Museum. Just ten years later, at the outbreak of World War Two, they were removed with one being returned to service while the other, being too damaged to repair, was placed in storage at the museum. Two guns were once again returned to display outside the Museum in 1959.

While they may not technically qualify as cannons, the history they carry is an important precursor to New Zealand's own later naval identity, and a recognisable part of the history of the Museum itself – and we think they more than fit in with the celebrations of heritage artillery happening across the world today.

[Dave Homewood]

Feb 21, 2024 13:26:59 GMT 12 Antonio said:

we can only hope that common sense will prevail.

Common sense is not common, in fact it is getting rarer by the day with uneducated idiots now in charge of so many once great institutions.

Then there is the small issue of the V1 replica....

It is not a replica. That is a genuine V1 that fell on London.

The one at Wigram (ex-MOTAT) was the US-made copy.

[McFly]

Feb 21, 2024 18:46:07 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Then there is the small issue of the V1 replica....It is not a replica. That is a genuine V1 that fell on London.

(Link)...

[snaphead]

iT SOUNDS LIKE SOMEONE FROM hELENS WATERFRONT MUSEUM GOT POSTD TO AKL. wHAT SORT OF SUBHUMAN ARE THEY!!!And where are future anzac comemorations going to be held, It all sounds like they the last lot thought all civilians were like little school kids. I could go on but am low on ink.

[campbellbox]

Given the strong reactions up-thread I'm hesitant to stick my oar in, but here goes: I don't think there's much cause for alarm.

As far as I can tell, the only person who suggested sending the Zero to Japan was McFly, and I am pretty sure they were joking. If the Museum is becoming less of a "colonial museum" I would expect most repatriations to be of items taken from indigenous peoples by colonizers.

My uneducated guess would be that we might see a thinning out of the Pacific Masterpieces, Pacific Lifeways and Maori Court as the artifacts from those collections get returned to their original kaitiaki. I recall there used to be an Egyptian mummy on display, maybe still is. I can see that, along with some supporting artifacts being returned to Egypt, as another example.

I can't imagine the War Memorial status of the Museum changing, and I also think it is highly unlikely any of the military collections, apart from artifacts relating to iwi from before 1914, being removed. There's a lot of talk about the British Museum returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece. I have never heard anyone suggest IWM Duxford should return the Messerschmitt in their BoB gallery to Germany.

Side note: "Helen's Waterfront Museum" opened in 1998 under the Bolger-Shipley National led government, which was in power from 1990 to 1999, with a little help from mate Winnie from 1996.