You are invited to come on a virtual visit to the
Alexander Turnbull Library, with Paul Diamond, Curator, Māori.
Paul Diamond (Ngāti Hauā, Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi) is a writer, historian and broadcaster. He currently holds the position of Curator, Māori at the Alexander Turnbull Library.
This is a
free session, which could be of particular interest to Māori, history teachers, art teachers and school library teams - all welcome.
Portraits, politicians, protesters and piccaninnies...
Paul will talk about two upcoming projects showcasing Turnbull collections:
- a monograph about how Māori have been represented in cartoons,
- and an exhibition of watercolour portraits of Māori from the top of the South Island painted by Isaac Coates in the 1840s.
Venue :
Whangarei Girls’ High School Library
Wednesday 5th September (week 8 of term) 3.30pm for afternoon tea, talk from 4 – 5pm ish
Free -
all welcome – teachers, library staff, public library staff, senior student librarians… Please pass this information on to anyone you think would be interested.
Please email
jeannie.skinner@dia.govt.nz with the number of people who will be attending.
2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the
NZ Cartoon Archive which became part of the Alexander Turnbull Library in 2005. Although Māori have featured in cartoons since they first appeared in New Zealand in the 1800s, the depictions of Māori have changed over time. In his talk, Paul Diamond will use images from the Archive to illustrate changing stereotypes of Māori - the topic of a monograph he is writing for the Cartoon Archive.
Cartoons sparked by rugby clashes between the All Black and Springbok teams are a particular focus of his research. A survey of cartoons, beginning when the games were uncontroversial, through to the post-1981 tour era, reveals changing attitudes to race in this country and challenges to the continued existence of the NZ Māori side.
The NZ Cartoon Archive contains more than 50,000 art works, boosted daily as new cartoons are published. Many contemporary cartoons have been created digitally, and are available online, together with a growing proportion of hard copies. This means that a large proportion of the cartoons can be searched and viewed online, making them an invaluable, accessible historical source and resource for students and teachers – wherever they are based.
Paul will also preview an exhibition opening in January 2013 in the new Turnbull Gallery. Head and Shoulders: portraits of Māori by Isaac Coates, displaying portraits of Māori from Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Māui, the top of the South Island, painted by the Englishman Isaac Coates in the early 1840s. This will be the first time these exquisite and fragile watercolour portraits have ever been exhibited as a complete set.
Paul Diamond's first book was
A Fire in Your Belly, a collection of interviews with Māori leaders (Huia, 2003). His second book was
Makereti: taking Māori to the World (Random House, 2007). From 2007 to 2009, Paul managed the
Vietnam War Oral History Project for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. In 2010 he was appointed to the Board of the New Zealand Book Council and has been a judge for the
New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2010 & 2011. He is researching the life of Charles MacKay, a mayor of Wanganui, who was convicted of attempted murder after he shot the writer Walter D’Arcy Cresswell in 1920.
Many thanks to
Whangarei Girls’ High School Library for providing the venue for this event.
