New Whanganui Regional Museum director Bronwyn Labrum returns home with wealth of experience

Bronwyn Labrum says there's far more to a museum than what you see on the floors. Photo / Bevan Conley

As the new director of the Whanganui Regional Museum, Bronwyn Labrum is in a unique position. She was born and raised in Whanganui, but brings decades of experience from institutions such as Te Papa and the Canterbury Museum to her role. It sounds like a match made in museum heaven, but Labrum tells Mike Tweed that those kinds of institutions hadn't been on her radar when she left Whanganui High School.

In her final years at school, Bronwyn Labrum "like lots of people who watch good TV programmes" wanted to be a lawyer.

"I didn't want to go to Victoria University though, I thought Massey in Palmerston North was a big enough first step," Labrum says.

It was there that Labrum completed a Bachelor of Arts, which allowed her to indulge in a "smorgasbord" of languages, history and english.

"I was really interested in history in particular - people in the past, how they lived, and why they made the decisions they did," she says.

"In my first couple of years, because it wasn't fashionable then, I didn't do New Zealand history, but as I advanced in my degree I did. I went on and did Honours, Masters, and a PHD."

Labrum says she became aware New Zealanders weren't aware of their own country's history.

"I actually wanted to take Māori at school, but I was told politely that I was too bright for that. That's a microcosm example of how much we've changed. There were people almost suppressing it, or actively not engaging in it.

Adding brightness and colour to the museum's exhibitions is at the top of Labrum's to-do list. Photo / Bevan Conley

"Museums have a responsibility to lead in those areas, and push the conversation forward.

"That's another reason why I was attracted to come back - because of the bicultural governance, the strong Māori collection [in the museum], and the strong iwi presence in Whanganui."

In the present day, aside from a few "squeaky wheels", the majority of the country is onboard when it came to learning about and acknowledging all aspects of New Zealand's history and culture, she says.

"One of the really great things about the national day for the New Zealand wars (He Rā Maumahara) is that lots of people have been asking 'Why haven't we been taught this before?".

"They want to know more.

"Most parents can sing the National Anthem in Māori, because their kids are learning it and experiencing it in school, even if they are Pākehā."

Labrum says the Whanganui museum is ready for its "next phase", having been refurbished and earthquake strengthened between 2016 and 2019.

"I've always thought that this is a great regional museum, and I was aware of how significant the collections are - from Taonga to scientific specimens to the history of the city and the region."

That next phase was still in a work in progress, however, and Labrum said she had spent the majority of her first five months "listening, watching, and learning".

"The team here is like a well-oiled machine, so it's not a case of me suddenly making radical change.

"It's about keeping up with the developments in museums, keeping up with the growing and changing shape of the Whanganui community, and asking 'What do our visitors want?'"

Commissioning "serious visitor research" was something she was keen on.

"Rather than being the authority that says 'we will tell you what we think you should know', museums need to ask what people are interested in," Labrum says.

"Now with social media and things like that, they are in the driver's seat, and their preferences are taken notice of. People have the world at their finger tips through their devices.

"What they can't access are things that are unique to Whanganui and to the communities here. That's really what the point of difference is."

Aesthetically, Labrum wants to make better use of the forecourt in front of the museum's steps, which is predominantly used as a carpark.

There has been a lot of "listening, watching, and learning" in her first few months as director. Photo / Bevan Conley

"It's just a bit of a nothing.

"If we could activate that space you could draw people up, and they would come into the museum as well.

"One thing I'm really sad about is the lower Victoria Avenue debacle. People want to drive right up to where they're doing business and won't walk a block. To me, that's a very small-town thing."

Along with upgrading the museum's IT system and implementing Wifi, Labrum says one immediate plan is to refresh the long-term exhibitions and bring in some more interactivity.

At present, the exhibitions require a lot of "standing and looking and reading".

"If I'm honest, the current displays are really conventional for my personal taste and from my viewpoint.

"They've kept the same structure, partly because they're using the beautiful old cases, which are magnificent pieces of furniture, but it is very staid and it is very 'how it used to be'.

"I'd like to change it up a bit. Our taxidermy exhibition is an example of that - bright, colourful, engaging, reusing things, and connecting people to ideas and stories as well as to the objects."

She has written three books, including "Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s", which was shortlisted for the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Being an author has been put on the back burner for the moment, however.

"I've done my academic career, I've done the writing career, and now it's time to step up and do this."

Stepping up helped secure an additional $150,000 per year in funding from the Whanganui District Council.

"That's just amazing," Labrum says.

"They had already agreed to an extra $75,000, and I went and made an oral submission to the long-term plan and they decided to double it.

The forecourt at the Whanganui Regional Museum is something Bronwyn Labrum wants to activate. Photo / Bevan Conley

"At the moment we don't have a dedicated Māori curator and we don't have a natural history curator.

"You can't run a museum without curatorial staff, so that money will hopefully address some of those vacancies."

Labrum says she would like to get more assistance for the museum's collections team, and "demystify" exactly what a museum does.

"We've got to remember that we are preserving this for the future as well, it's not just about the front-of-house experience.

"There's the safe housing of the collection, looking after it, cataloguing it, and making sure it's accessible when people want to come and view it.

"All people see is the front of this experience. There's so much more to it."

While members of the public could bring in personal items for inspection and possible inclusion in the collection, Labrum says there has been a tendency to "just say yes to things" in the past.

While it is tough to turn people's "treasures" away, she is glad they still want to bring them to a place like the Whanganui Regional Museum.

"I started working at Te Papa right when it opened, and right when it was getting hammered in the press: 'What kind of museum is it?' 'Is it a Māori museum?' 'Is it going to tell the right story?

"I learned a really big thing there - it's more important for people to be arguing over you, and therefore to have a stake in you and be interested, than no one taking any notice.

"Then you're completely irrelevant."