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Friday, November 11, 2005

Public Service Announcement. Re: art

Your whakapapa/ancestral migration story is wanted for an international art competition. Zane explains:

"We're doing a text thing and need stories of how different people or their ancestors arrived in New Zealand and from where. It's up to your interpretation what or how much you write but a paragraph or two from a lot of people would help. Obviously what we're getting at is showing the cultural diversity that makes up New Zealand and the fact that some of us are of European decent and yet have been here for many generations and some of us are recent arrivals and so on."

I suppose the contributions could be anonymous also. I don't want to mention what the competition is in case the concept is plagiarised!

Although any attempted intrusion/supervision of the project by me will be utterly thwarted, I trust Paula and Zane will do justice to your stories, and on behalf of them I thank you in advance.

Email: zed@pacificdesign.co.nz

1 Comments:

At 14/11/05 5:31 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heres Some eg's. Also I need these by the end of the week. For those that submit I'll let you know where and when you can check it out. Till then,
Z.

Judy, 5th generation NZer. One of my ancesters, George Field, came out from England as a soldier to fight in the Maori Wars. The woman he married, Louisa Jane Nippress, came out to NZ in 1840 on the “Charlotte Jane”, one of the first four ships into Lyttelton. She was married to an “agriculturalist”(probably a farmer), but he and her baby died of scarlet fever on the journey out and she arrived in Lyttleton on her own. She worked in the Lyttleton Hotel, where George met her. They farmed on Banks Peninnsular for the rest of their lives and had 13 children. They also looked after Louisa’s sister’s two daughters who were sent out to NZ aged 10 and 12 when their mother died. One of the girls eloped with one of George and Louisa’s sons - they were my great grandparents - scandal! Another of their sons became the Mayor of Christchurch. Another of my great great Grandfather, George White, was transported from England to Tasmania for stealing a box of buttons off the back of a cart. He nearly drowned when the ship he was on founded some 100 miles short of Hobart. He spent 6 months in the Port Arthur Prison. There he met his wife who had been a maid in a big house in England. She was accussed of taking her mistresses shawl and transported as a result. She was released shortly after arrival too. They lived in Melbourne for a long time where he was a Jeweller. (There was deliberate transporting of people with skills that a new colony needed at this time). Later they came to NZ with their children and settled in Dunedin.

Danielle the young dutch immigrant. It all started about 6.5 years ago when I was traveling through Australia on my big O.E. In a backpackers hostel in Noosa I met two kiwi travelers, who were cousins and chasing the waves of the east coast together.
I fell in love with one of them and traveled through Oz with him for a while. We then went our own ways for about half a year and met again in Amsterdam. To cut a long story short, we lived and traveled together for a while in England, France, The Netherlands and New Zealand. After both having experienced living in each other’s countries for a while, it became clear that New Zealand was the place to be. I sure as hell didn’t fit into the Dutch way of life anymore after my travels and Duane almost went insane over there. Besides, I love being outside on the beach, in the bush on the mountains and so New Zealand became my new home. It has been about 4.5 years now since I received my residency in New Zealand and I defenately do not regret my decision at all.
What a beautiful country with great people and endless opportunities!

Trina. I dont really know too much about my ancestors or how they came to be here, as I have never made much effort to find out. What I do know is very limited. My maternal grandfather came here from Scotland in his early 20’s and worked in the Huntly coalmines and my grandmother was of English descent. My fathers’ ancestors arrived here from England and Ireland, sometime in the 1890s. For me, its not really important where my ancestors came from. What matters, is that I was born here and this is where I belong.

Clare, Student. My parents came from England about 27 years ago for a holiday after they married and ended up staying here because they loved it so much. Obviously I’m a first generation ‘kiwi’ but have English and Scottish heritage. My partner (Andrew) has Maori, Scottish and English heritage. He belongs to Ngai Tahu and is 1/16th Maori from his dad’s side. His mother’s side emigrated from Britain several decades ago, with his grandmother growing up in South Africa before coming to New Zealand. Andrew was born in Christchurch.

 

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