The entrance to Auckland War Memorial Musuem' s new gallery, Pou Maumahara Memorial Discovery Centre.
The entrance to Auckland War Memorial Musuem' s new gallery, Pou Maumahara Memorial Discovery Centre.
Aucklanders can now get a long-awaited look at the new gallery which replaces the beloved Auckland 1866 Centennial Street exhibition at the museum.
Pou Maumahara Memorial Discovery Centre opened at the Auckland War Memorial Museum yesterday, in time for today's Armistice Day commemorations.
The centre, in the East Gallery on the museum's top floor, is described as a place of reflection and discovery, where people can learn more about New Zealand servicemen and women and find their connections to past conflicts.
It includes digital interactive displays, photographs, diaries, books and records, military equipment and military medals - thought to number around 1400 - laid out in visible and easily accessible storage drawers. It is also home to Auckland Museum's Online Cenotaph.
The $3 million re-development has seen the space undergo extensive restoration. For the first time in 50 years, its original heritage features, including neo-classical marble skirting, columns and an engraved timber stage, are visible.
Other elements involved community effort. Led by Beronia Scott, ten weavers from Ngati Whatua Orakei in Auckland helped by weavers in Whangarei have created flax panels while students from Birkenhead College researched and wrote profiles on servicemen for one of the digital interactives.
This interactive features a map of Birkenhead and a number of houses; click on one of the houses and you can discover letters, photos and stories about those who lived there and served.
It is linked to a display about Mrs Alice Mickle, a Birkenhead resident who wrote to many of the local lads serving in World War I. Mrs Mickle collected their photos and letters in an album, captioning each one with details about the individual's service. Her album is also displayed.
Collection manager Victoria Passau says visitors may be surprised to find a number of those remembered in Pou Maumahara Memorial Discovery Centre were not servicemen or women, but had other links to our war stories.
Auckland War Memorial staff member Ella Johnson says a family connection to WWII has made New Zealand's military history more personal to her.
Staff member and collection technician Ella Johnson knows first-hand the significance of finding out more about family links to world wars. The grand-daughter of poet and novelist Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, she grew up knowing her grandfather's older brother was killed in World War II.
While there were photographs of her great-uncle, Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell, in family homes and Alistair wrote the poem To Stuart in his memory, Ms Johnson says she wanted to learn more about his life and death.
Stuart died due to "friendly fire" as he waited to cross the Santerno River near Massa, Lombarda in Italy. An RAF Bomber dropped a bomb near the D Company unit of the 28th Maori Battalion and Stuart, aged just 22, was killed. He is buried in Faenza War Cemetery, Italy.
Ms Johnson will be based in the gallery to provide research advice for visitors.
"My connection to NZ's military heritage makes the history so much more real to me. Rather than just being something to read about in books it is something that happened to my family and people I know."
The museum has now developed a virtual tour of Auckland 1866, its first exhibition re-created online. The virtual tour is complemented by additional online content about some of the object which once featured in Auckland 1866.
The virtual tour can be found at: http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/topics/the-objects-of-colonial-auckland
Museum director Roy Clare says the opening of Pou Maumahara fits with the vision of those who established the institution had in 1929.
"Our forebears envisaged the spaces either side of the WWI Sanctuary being used as sources of memory; in presenting this new gallery, we are responding to their vision."
