Palmerston North Heritage Trust Awards 2021

  Palmerston North Heritage Trust Citation Local Historian of the Year 2021 

In 2021 our Local Historian of the Year award goes to Toi Warbrick.  

In making this award jointly to Warren and Virginia Warbrick, the Trust recognises the many ways of telling stories about our past which go beyond words on a page – orally, creatively and collaboratively. Through music, art, performance and interactive exercises involving community engagement, they have made Rangitāne’s stories, and the area’s history, available to new audiences. They’ve done this in ways not previously attempted on such a varied and ambitious scale. 

The work of Toi Warbrick has included the 2018 performance of ‘KONO: Song Cycle of a New Town’ where they took Palmerston North’s history to an international audience, later repeating it at the Palmy Fringe Festival. Through this highly original and well-received retelling of Palmerston North’s past they advanced a narrative of peacemaking and bi-cultural beginnings for our city, underlining the ways in which its origins were very different from those of many any other towns in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

There are many other ways in which Warren and Virginia, individually and jointly, have advanced understanding of our rohe and the origins of its peoples. They have the ability to get people to look differently at place, to question and rethink dates and received accounts, and to do this in imaginative and accessible ways. In Palmerston North’s 150th year, they have distributed cards across the city, suggesting why 1864, the year the Te Ahu a Tūranga block was sold, may be a more significant date than 1871. We have seen questions appear on central city pavements, asking us curly questions about dates. Their 150 Pātai project invited citizens to consider their current feelings for Palmerston North and knowledge about its past. 

Most especially, Toi Warbrick has helped residents understand far more about Rangitāne’s origins, claims, and contribution to Palmerston North. Hearing Warren talk – ‘in place’ - about the sites that have meaning for him and his tūpuna can be a transformative experience, one where stories are shared with humour, generosity and grace. 

In making this award the Palmerston North Heritage Trust acknowledges that there are forms of history which go beyond the actual telling, to help shift perceptions, politics and social dynamics. We salute Warren and Virginia for their huge contribution to Palmerston North (or as Warren might prefer?) ‘Pamutana’.   

Best local history book award to Michele Frey, compiler of Te Āpiti Manawatū Gorge Te Au-rere-a-te-tonga  For July 2019 to June 2021

The Palmerston North Heritage Trust award for the best book on the history of the Manawatū is awarded to Michele Frey, compiler of the book Te Āpiti Manawatū Gorge Te Au-rere-a-te-tonga.  

The key criteria used for the award are quality of the research; scholarship and analysis; writing and presentation; contribution to the understanding of Manawatū history and, where appropriate, New Zealand and/or world history. This book exceeded expectations on each of these criteria. 

Sponsored by the Te Āpiti Governance Group, Te Āpiti Manawatū Gorge is a comprehensive celebration of the history of Te Āpiti Manawatū Gorge, encompassing its geology; forest ecosystem, flora and fauna; Māori history; European settler history; contribution as a transport link, to the economy and to recreation in the area. It is a compilation developed from the research and analysis of information from over 30 people, each of whom brought their knowledge and expertise to one of the eight chapters which explore the Gorge proper and the Gorge surrounds. It makes a valuable contribution to local history, as it gathers a large amount of information into one book, making it accessible to a wide audience now and into the future.

The text is beautifully illustrated with historical and recent photographs pertinent to the story each chapter tells. Text boxes in most chapters contain additional details about aspects of the story. For those interested in exploring information in more depth, extensive endnotes are provided in a way which does not disrupt the text for others. It is, therefore, appropriate for a wide range of readers: local, national and, given the geological significance of the Gorge, international as well. 

In a perhaps fitting conclusion to the book, the Afterword records the 2017 slip which led to the closure of the Manawatū Gorge road. As Michele writes, “really reinforcing what has been highlighted in so many places in this book: the powerful, untamed nature of the mighty Manawatū Gorge” (p. 253).    

Highly Commended to Murray Brown and Alec Astle for 125 Not Out: A History of the Manawatū Cricket Association 1895-2020 

The Palmerston North Heritage Trust has awarded ‘Highly Commended’ to Murray Brown and Alec Astle for 125 Not Out: A History of the Manawatū Cricket Association 1895-2020.   

This book provides an impressively comprehensive and thoroughly researched history of cricket in the Manawatū. The information is structured into fifteen chapters, most of which cover a particular decade, with the topics of women’s and girl’s cricket and Palmerston North Boys’ High School’s involvement also receiving attention. 

Collectively, the book charts the changing circumstances of the game in the region, as it shifted from intermittent matches, to rival local associations and later was impacted by increasing professionalisation. The introductory section of each chapter discusses cricket in relation to the broader social and historical experiences of each decade. In doing so, it considers how developments such as improved transport networks, changes to working hours and the Holidays Act, two world wars and economic conditions all influenced participation in the game. Detailed information is provided regarding the activities of school, club, interprovincial and even international cricket in the Manawatū, with summaries of significant matches. This amount of information, compiled into a single volume, demonstrates the book’s value as a reference text, although cricket enthusiasts will also enjoy reading it in its entirety. The seventeen appendices of names and statistics further enhance the book’s value to future researchers. Additional human interest is added by the text boxes which provide profiles of prominent players and administrators, as do the many photographs illustrating the text.  

Community History Project Special Award for  City at the Centre: A History of Palmerston North:  Tini Whetū kit e rangi take rau tāngata kit e whenua 

This award recognises and acknowledges the many contributors to the community history project between 2016 and 2020 which culminated in the publication of City at the Centre: A History of Palmerston North: Tini Whetū ki te rangi take rau tāngata ki te whenua in October 2020.    

The research for the book drew extensively on the records held in the Ian Matheson Archives, the Massey University Archives. A grant of $42,900 from Lottery Environment and Heritage enabled the employment of research assistants to collate key information. Funding from the W.H. Oliver Humanities Research Academy from Massey University enabled a workshop to be held early in the project which drew on the experiences of the Canterbury History Project. The extensive illustrations for the book were primarily sourced from Manawatū Heritage and particular credit is due to the Manawatū Standard for allowing photographs from their collection to be used free of charge. Wiremu and Trieste Te Awe Awe provided valuable guidance for the history, particularly the chapter on Tangata Whenua by Peter Meihana and Hone Morris. Chapters were contributed on a voluntary basis by authors. The Palmerston North City Council, in particular Mayor Grant Smith supported the project throughout, purchasing a number of copies which helped reduce production costs. The expertise of publishers Massey University Press was reflected in the book’s high production values. The end product of these manifold contributions, historian Tim Shoebridge, has written, is ‘engrossing, stimulating and uniformly well-written’ and a ‘model for future urban biographies.’