Efforts are underway to find out how many Maori left Christchurch after the earthquake; The Chairperson of the Maori Midwives Collective Nga Maia, says the earthquake a year ago forced the organisation to start its administrative operations from scratch; Ngai Tahu says its people are turning to the tribe for help with legal and engineering advice about their earthquake-damaged homes in Christchurch; The Ngai Tahu hapu, Ngai Tuahuriri in Christchurch, will be welcoming the Governor-General to Rehua Marae this morning to commemorate the anniversary of last year's earthquake.
Ngai Tahu says its people are turning to the tribe for help with legal and engineering advice about their earthquake-damaged homes in Christchurch; The Chairperson of the Maori Midwives Collective Nga Maia, says the earthquake a year ago forced the organisation to start its administrative operations from scratch; Efforts are underway to find out how many Maori left Christchurch after the earthquake; The Ngai Tahu hapu, Ngai Tuahuriri in Christchurch, will be welcoming the Governor-General to Rehua Marae this morning to commemorate the anniversary of last year's earthquake; Christchurch will hear today whether it'll be hosting the biggest Maori performance event on the calendar - Te Matatini National Festival.
4th September 2010 a 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes near Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city of approximately 370,000 people. This is followed by a 6.3 magnitude quake on 22nd February 2011 and a 6.4 on 13th June. In February 181 people died and a state of national emergency was declared from 23 February to 30th April. Urban Search and Rescue teams with 150 personnel from New Zealand and 429 from overseas worked tirelessly in addition to Army, Police and Fire services. Within the central business district 1,000 buildings (of 4,000) are expected to be demolished. An estimated 10,000 houses require demolition and over 100,000 were damaged. Meanwhile the over 7,000 aftershocks have become part of the “new normal” for us all.
During this time how have libraries supported their staff? What changes have been made to services? What are the resourcing opportunities?
This presentation will provide a personal view from Lincoln University, Te Whare Wanaka o Aoraki, Library Teaching and Learning. Lincoln is New Zealand's third oldest university having been founded in 1878. Publicly owned and operated it is New Zealand's specialist land-based university. Lincoln is based on the Canterbury Plains, 22 kilometres south of Christchurch. On campus there was mostly minor damage to buildings while in the Library 200,000 volumes were thrown from the shelves. I will focus on the experiences of the Disaster Team and on our experiences with hosting temporarily displaced staff and students from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Library, Learning & Information Services.
Experiences from two other institutions will be highlighted:
Christchurch City Libraries, Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi. Focusing on the Māori Services Team and the Ngā Pounamu Māori and Ngāi Tahu collections. The Central library located within the red zone cordon has been closed since February, the Central library held the Ngā Pounamu Māori and Ngai Tahu collections, the largest Māori collections in the Christchurch public library network. The lack of access to these collections changed the way the Māori Services Team, part of the larger Programmes, Events and Learning Team at Christchurch City Libraries were able to provide services to their community resulting in new innovative outreach programmes and a focus on promotion of online resources. On 19th December the “temporary” new and smaller Central library Peterborough opened. The retrieved Ngā Pounamu Māori and Ngai Tahu collections "Ngā rakau teitei e iwa”, have since been re-housed and are once again available for use by the public.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. This organisation, established by the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Act 1996, services the statutory rights for the people of Ngāi Tahu descent and ensures that the benefits of their Treaty Claim Settlement are enjoyed by Ngāi Tahu now and in the future. Ngāi Tahu are the indigenous Māori people of the southern islands of New Zealand - Te Waipounamu. The iwi (people) hold the rangatiratanga or tribal authority to over 80 per cent of the South Island. With their headquarters based in the central business they have also had to be relocated to temporary facilities. This included their library/archive collection of print resources, art works and taonga (cultural treasures).
A research project on news coverage about Maori, has found that tangata whenua are still regarded as lower class citizens; Ngai Tahu iwi says it's learnt from the Canterbury earthquakes, just how important it is to safeguard important documents such as its whakapapa database in a digital form, in case there's another natural disaster; New Zealand's largest Maori owned fishing company wants to see the unique Maori story pushed by companies doing business in Asian countries; Meanwhile Ngati Kahungunu Chairman, Ngahiwi Tomoana, who was the business group convenor, says Maori business leaders are keen to set up an office in China
A research project on news coverage about Maori, has found that tangata whenua are still regarded as lower class citizens; Ngai Tahu iwi says it's learnt from the Canterbury earthquakes, just how important it is to safeguard important documents such as its whakapapa database in a digital form, in case there's another natural disaster; New Zealand's largest Maori owned fishing company wants to see the unique Maori story pushed by companies doing business in Asian countries; Meanwhile Ngati Kahungunu Chairman, Ngahiwi Tomoana, who was the business group convenor, says Maori business leaders are keen to set up an office in China.
