The Hocken Blog, University of Otago, New Zealand

Joe’s Cabin: a photographic occasion in Silverstream Valley

Wednesday, July 31st, 2024 | Hocken Collections | No Comments

Post researched and written by David Murray, Archivist

There are many photographs of sombre-faced Victorians in the Hocken Collections, but few first-hand accounts of the circumstances and experiences surrounding their creation. A photo titled ‘Joes Cabin’ comes with a description that might change first impressions. Taken at Silverstream Valley near Dunedin on 28 December 1886, it is pasted into a trip diary of John Elder Moultray. A professional artist, born in Edinburgh, Moultray was in his early twenties. ‘Joe’ is identified as ‘Joe C – a man who works on the [water] Race’, with a cabin in the Silverstream Valley. On Christmas Day the two men shared hunting tales at Whare Flat. Moultray recorded: ‘As it was now getting late Joe left to go to his cabin and as I have promised to photograph not only it but himself wife and baby as well he is thoroughly delighted at the prospect of being took’.

On 28 December, Moultray wrote: ‘Really and Truly this is actually a fine day. Now don’t look astonished but get your hat and come out? After breakfast I took the camera and went over to Joes to fulfil my promise. The sun shone brilliantly. The birds were chattering with spasmodic delight, you see the poor beggers have never any tax-gatherers coming around at akward [sic] times to damp their ardour. Henry who accompanied me took up his place in the background to view the proceedings. The camera was set, then over I went and knocked softly at the door, as the door opened I saw enough to cause me regret that I had come. The preparation that was going forward was startling, then there was a desperate struggle to prevent asking if they expected the Queen around. Joes better half led the van carrying her first baby which rolled its eyes dreadfully for the camera and then fixed them on its fathers shirt sleeve in such a marked manner that all eyes naturally followed its steady stare, which made Joe look rather sheepish as he had turned out without his coat to show his contempt for fashion and his feminine companions weakness in donning their best. However I always admire a man of principal and Joe at least strives to act up to his. Next comes Joes mother-in-law, a thoroughly practical old lady with plenty breadth of beam. The Rear was brought up by Joes nephew or grandchild or uncle or grandfather I always get mixed with relationships but he was a little boy in his Sunday togs, who had to be dragged out, but afterwards became interested watching for a beautiful bird to fly out the camera. The adults all struck tragic attitudes and glowered at the lens, an instant afterwards there was a forty horse power sigh went up showing that the deed was done’.

We would love to learn more about the ‘Joe C’ family. The art of John Elder Moultray is represented in the Hocken Collections by 21 oil paintings, mostly landscapes, and a few other works. There is a small collection of his personal papers. Sadly John’s elder brother Henry, who also went on the trip, died just a few months later.

The diary has just been digitised and can be read in full at: https://hocken.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/66784

Reference: Diary (1886-1887), MS-4847/003, John Elder Moultray papers, Hocken Collections – Te Uare Taoka o Hākena.

Unearthing 19th Century New Zealand Photography

Thursday, April 27th, 2023 | Anna Blackman | 2 Comments

Tēnā koutou katoa, ko Scarlett Rogers tōku ingoa, nō Ōtepoti ahau.

I am currently a student at the University of Otago and am doing my last paper to complete my Bachelor of Applied Science with a double major in History and Physical Education, Activity and Health. I have a passion for both the history of Aotearoa and the outdoors, hence the combination of art and science within my degree.

This summer (2022-2023) I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship from the Centre for Research on Colonial Culture (CRoCC), and Uare Taoka o Hākena Hockens Collections welcomed me as part of their team to carry out research. I was assigned to work with the Pictorial Department where I helped the Hocken Librarian with a publication that was being prepared in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition. This project is a collaboration between Uare Taoka o Hākena Hocken Collections, Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, and Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand. When I was told I would be helping with a publication that involved all three of the above institutions, I felt like I had landed on a gold mine. This internship very quickly became a once in a lifetime opportunity, especially for me as a student in the History department, who is very interested in both history and writing.

My role within this project was to research and write a chronology from 1840 to 1899 that captured the rapid changes in photographic technology as well as society in Aotearoa in this period. Another focus was to approach the chronology from a Te Ao Māori lens. This aspect of the research was particularly important as it tied into the research CroCC covers. I was also assigned to write a glossary that focused on the key photographic terms covered in the book. Another aspect of my role was to attend the publication meetings and take minutes. These meetings were eye-opening because they gave me a sneak peek into the world of publishing. It was great to listen in on the creative conversations and see the complexities involved, particularly with a book that has multiple authors and institutions involved.

The book’s purpose is to highlight the extensive photographic collections that each institution has, as well as to complement the exhibition that will eventually be on display at each institution. The book’s target audience is diverse, but one objective was to write it at a level that secondary pupils could easily understand. It is hoped that the new New Zealand Aotearoa Histories Curriculum will make use of this book as a resource. The chronology is included in the book to give anyone who is reading it a broad understanding of photography at the time, but it will be especially useful for students who might want to focus on one event or a particular period.

The timeframe that the publication focuses on is significant in many ways because the invention of photography closely coincided with the colonisation of Aotearoa. This gives the history of photography in Aotearoa a special quality as it captured the raw nature of the very new colony. One important point that unfolded while I was researching was that photographs from that period were taken by Pākehā settlers or explorers. For example, in 1865 the construction of Arthurs Pass was photographed in detail which illuminates the significance of the road for settlers. But what these photographs do not capture is how Māori felt about the whenua being carved up and trees being cut down for the industrialisation of the country.

Road over Arthur’s Pass, NZ. Aotearoa Series no N1552. Hocken Collections

This highlights how photography was yet another tool of colonisation. Although many Māori were in photographs there were no known Māori photographers during this period. This signifies how photography at the time might be used as a tool of privilege and control. Pākehā with access to cameras had the autonomy to choose what they deemed worthy of being photographed. When analysing photographs from this period it is important to consider the narrative being told and to remember that the images have been captured and curated by colonial settler society.

Although Māori were not behind the camera they were consumers of photography. Māori incorporated this Western technology into their own culture by displaying photography in their marae. Māori viewed photographs of whānau as much more than just tangible keepsakes and understood photographs of loved ones to hold mauri (life force). Photographs such as these became especially valuable after the person in the image had died.

I found it interesting that by 1860 traditional Māori dress was only worn on special occasions in Aotearoa; portrait sessions often being significant enough. The tradition of men being adorned with moko had also decreased. But images were often retouched and moko were drawn onto Māori after the photograph had been taken; perhaps to inject the indigenous back into the subject. There was a high demand for photographs of Māori because of the popularity of the images overseas. It was eye-opening to find out how widespread early photographs of Māori were around the world. This led me to ponder the ethics around this and question who had the right of ownership over these photographs: the photographer, or the subject?

Maori chief with taiaha (c.1900), photographer William A. Collis, Box-112-010, Hocken Collections

I had never utilised photography as historical evidence before, but after just a bit of research, I quickly became interested in photography and the way photographs can be used as historical evidence to comprehend a particular society. Through this project, I came to realise photographs often tell a story that simply can not be put into words. But on the flip side, it is easy to make assumptions about a photograph – which can be interpreted in so many different ways – which is why it is often valuable to use photographs alongside other evidence.

This internship bought up many questions which I would love to explore in future research and has also sparked my interest in photography. My mind has also been opened to the many different sources and forms of evidence that can be used for historical research. I had a lot of enlightening conversations while working in the Pictorial Department, and I got to see Hocken’s art collection for the first time. I had been on many tours in the downstairs stacks at the Hocken before, but I was amazed to see the extensive art and photography collections in the upstairs spaces at the Hocken Library. My time as a CroCC intern proved to be tremendously informative and interesting because before I started I knew very little about the subject of photography or how the Hocken operated. I have learnt a lot about how to analyse photography in the context of historiography and as a by-product, I have learnt more about the history of Aotearoa.

University of Otago colleges – a few flashbacks

Thursday, February 23rd, 2023 | Hocken Collections | 1 Comment

With many students settling into their University of Otago colleges, here are some flashbacks to colleges and halls of residence back in the day. Many were captured for the university’s marketing and publicity purposes, others were formal records.

Selwyn College tennis team 1972. Individuals unidentified. Morris Kershaw photograph, ref: 84-086/66. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

Toroa International House (now Toroa College) in 2001. Individuals unidentified. University of Otago Marketing and Communications Department, ref: MS-5249. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

The dining room at St Margaret’s College in 1949. A publicity photo for the Prime Minister’s Department, ref: Box-184-087. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

Salmond Hall (now Salmond College) dining room, [1988]. University of Otago Marketing and Communications Department records, ref: MS-5249. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

First-year Home Science students at Studholme Hall (now Studholme College) in 1936. Individuals unidentified. Unknown photographer. Association of the Home Science Alumnae of New Zealand records, ref: MS-1516/075/001. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

Knox College, around the late 1980s. University of Otago Marketing and Communications Department , ref: 5249. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

Aquinas College students and staff in 1976. The college opened in 1954 and was run by the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) until its closure in 1980. The building was sold to Elim Church, and then to the University of Otago, which reopened it as a student residential college, known as Dalmore House, in 1988. It was renamed Aquinas in 1996. Hurst & Palmer photographers. Records of Aquinas College, ref: MS-4752/025. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

City College from Cumberland Street, about 2005. Opened in 2000, it became Caroline Freeman College in 2018. University of Otago Marketing and Communications Department records, ref: MS-5249. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

A room in Cumberland Hall (now Cumberland College), around the late 1980s. Cumberland was earlier the Dunedin Hospital Nurses’ Home. University of Otago Marketing and Communications Department records, ref: MS-5249. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

Carrington Hall (now Carrington College) around the late 1980s. University of Otago Marketing and Communications Department records, ref: MS-5249. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

Helensburgh House, Wakari, in the 1980s. Glenys Roome papers, ref: MS-4676. Hocken Collections – Uara Taoka o Hākena.

192 Castle Street. The Glendermid Ltd warehouse and offices on this site were completed in 1958. The company had a tannery at Sawyers Bay. In 2005 the building was partially demolished and redeveloped as LivingSpace hotels and apartments. It became Te Rangi Hiroa College in 2014. A new Te Rangihīroa College will open on a new site on Albany Street 2023. The old building is now Te Kāreti o Castle, 192 Castle College. Ref: Home and Building magazine, vol. 22 no. 10 (March 1960).

Stranger than Fiction: Split Enz at 50

Thursday, January 26th, 2023 | Hocken Collections | 2 Comments

Post researched and written by Amanda Mills, Curator Music and AV Collections

October 2022 marked 50 years since the formation of Split Enz, one of the most significant bands to emerge from New Zealand, and one which launched the careers of Tim and Neil Finn, Phil Judd, Noel Crombie, and Eddie Rayner. Before the ‘Enz’, they were ‘Ends’, with their original line-up of Brian (Tim) Finn, Phil Judd, Miles Golding, Mike Chunn, and Mike Howard – a five-piece who favoured acoustic folk-pop music. Idiosyncratic, creative and unique, they were unlike anything in the Aotearoa New Zealand music scene. Time, exposure, and evolving music styles meant their sound and image changed over the years, moving through art-rock, prog-rock and post-punk with a distinctive flair for stage (and costume) theatrics.

Split Enz, 1975. [Unknown Otago Daily Times photographer]. 1975. P1998-028/01/20-001. Hocken Photographs Collection, Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena. Permission to use kindly granted by Allied Press and Tim Finn.

1973 was a key year for Split Ends and began on January 6 with a performance at the Great Ngāruawāhia Music Festival. To say they weren’t the favourite act on the bill is an understatement. Split Ends were booed offstage by 18,000 Black Sabbath fans who did not appreciate their sound, which, according to Phil Judd was (at the time) a “lightweight, puny-sounding acoustic affair” (RNZ, 2005). The experience at Ngāruawāhia was disappointing, but the band were on a trajectory, recording early songs ‘Split Ends’ and ‘For You’ at Stebbings Studios before starting a New Zealand tour. The band line-up was also evolving: Mike Howard and Miles Golding exited the band and were replaced by Geoff Chunn on drums, and Wally Wilkinson on guitar. Honing their sound for the rest of the year, Split Ends’ spot on the New Faces television talent show cemented them as a band to watch, although they came second to last in the final – one judge told them they would be ‘too clever’ to succeed. They may not have won, but they made an impression and were given a 30-minute concert feature on New Zealand television. At the start of 1974 they changed their name from ‘Ends’ to ‘Enz’, signifying a change in style and sound, a move which Tim Finn in 2005 noted as “graphically it sticks in your mind with a z at the end” (RNZ, 2005). A move to Australia, and an emphasis on band visuals (costumes, hairstyles, and movements) saw them sign with Mushroom Records, and they released their debut album Mental Notes in 1975. A glorious, strange album, Mental Notes was voted no. 1 on Rip it Up’s canonical list of 100 best New Zealand records in 2000.

Image: Split Enz. (1975). Mental Notes. [Album]. Original LP on White Cloud Records, and various CD reissues on Mushroom Records and Festival Records. Mental Notes is Split Enz. [Auckland: Pye Records, c.1975]. Split Enz: Ephemera, Eph-0109-ML-D-01/01.Ephemera Collection, Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena.

Band members including Eddie Rayner, Noel Crombie, Neil Finn, and Nigel Griggs joined at different points, while others including Phil Judd and Mike Chunn departed. The changing line-up and a continuing move towards a leaner, pared-back image and sound in the 1980s gave Split Enz hit singles and albums both in New Zealand and Australia. Their 1980 album True Colours was massively successful, charting locally at no.1 for eight weeks running. Split Enz were now an international success as True Colours also went double platinum in Canada, selling over 200,000 copies there. The lead single ‘I Got You’, a no. 1 single in Australia and New Zealand, also reached no.10 in the UK singles chart – the band’s performance on Top of the Pops seen by an estimated 11 million people. 40 years later, the 2020 reissue (and remix) of True Colours would again reach the New Zealand no.1 album chart position, confirming their place in New Zealand music history. While Tim Finn left the band in early 1984, Split Enz disbanded after their Enz with a Bang tour that same year, but occasionally reformed for one-off shows or tours around New Zealand and Australia. In 2022 Tim Finn and Eddie Rayner formed Forenzics, a musical project that took different melodic or rhythmic strands of Split Enz songs and created new works from them.

A band of idle dreamers: Split Enz at 50 foyer display, 2022. Image taken by Amanda Mills.

During the University of Otago’s 2022 second semester, Humanities student intern Emma Aplin worked on a project examining Split Enz, and the materials across Hocken that relate to the band. As well as listing these sources, Emma worked with Music and AV curator Amanda Mills to create the current foyer display highlighting materials about Split Enz, from publications to recordings, posters and ephemera. We found many gems, including a scrapbook of 1980s music donated to Hocken’s archives, and the One Step Ahead newsletter which looks at Australian and New Zealand music and film in the early 1980s (Split Enz feature regularly). To compliment the display is an introductory panel, written as part of the student internship, and a Spotify playlist (curated by our intern and Music/AV curator) celebrating 50 years of the Split Enz, and the band members’ subsequent solo work, or work in other bands.

Footage of Split Ends’ 1973 performance on New Faces can be seen on NZ on Screen here https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/split-enz-new-faces-1973

The Hocken Collections’ 50 years of Split Enz Spotify playlist, curated by HUMS intern Emma Aplin and Hocken Music Curator Amanda Mills can be found here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2SAIUZqig5ZFXjFy8lAC78?si=ad40406de0f84347

Music Curator Amanda Mills talked to RNZ in early January about the display, and the Hocken’s Collections of Split Enz material. The interview can be found here https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/summer-days/audio/2018873218/history-never-repeats-50-years-of-split-enz

References:

RNZ, 2005. Enzology Part 1 – Beginning of the Enz (1950s-1975). Available online https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/enzology/audio/2534636/enzology-part-1-beginning-of-the-enz-1950s-1975

Autograph books: from simple charm to simply stunning

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022 | Hocken Collections | 2 Comments

Blog post researched and written by Kate Guthrie, Collections Assistant – Archives

Remember autograph books?

For those of us old enough to have had one back in the day, they were the Facebook of the pre-internet age; a little album to collect the thoughts and witticisms of your friends, family and occasionally even the famous. Sometimes kept and treasured for many years after the last entries were written in them, autograph books could become memory-holders too, for friends the album-keeper had lost touch with and older family members who’d passed away.

An autograph book tended to arrive sometime around the pre-teen/early teenage years – perhaps in a Christmas stocking – and the first autographs to grace the new album might well be the ‘rellies’ gathered for Christmas lunch. Everyone had a favourite verse or two they carefully wrote in – and the tricky part was coming up with something no-one else had written before you. It was a good idea to get in early, as Nelson Stockbridge’s father did back in 1945…

By Hook or by Crook,
I’ll be first in this Book
Dad, Xmas 1945

Stockbridge, Nelson: Autograph book (1945-1949), Misc-MS-2072

Nelson’s Auntie Ruby had some sage advice a few years later…

All the people o’er our town
Are always running people down
So let us turn to the Loving Cup
And do a little running up

Stockbridge, Nelson : Autograph book (1945-1949), Misc-MS-2072

Another personal favourite from Nelson’s album is this one from J. Hurn, dated 1946:

Mary had a little watch
She swallowed it one day
And now she’s taking castor oil
To pass the time away.

Stockbridge, Nelson : Autograph book (1945-1949), Misc-MS-2072

We don’t know much about Nelson Stockbridge, but there are one or two clues in the autograph book itself and in its provenance. The album was found in the loft of the hall of All Saints’ Anglican Church, Dunedin and donated to the Hocken by the All Saints’ vicar in 2009. It includes references to Terrace End School and Brooklyn School, suggesting Nelson lived in Palmerston North and Wellington as a boy.

Time to hit the search engines…

Births must have occurred more than one hundred years ago to be searchable on the Births, Deaths and Marriages historical database. Deaths, however, can be searched right up until the present day and often reveal a birth date or age as well. If you’re interested in family history research, it’s something worth remembering.

Nelson Stockbridge is a less-common name, which also makes a quick search worthwhile. And there’s a promising hit: Nelson William Stockbridge died in 2009 (coincidentally the year his autograph book came to light), and his date of birth is given as 23 January 1935, meaning he was soon to turn eleven when he was given that Christmas autograph book.

And how did that book make its way to All Saints Anglican in Dunedin? That faithful workhorse Google uncovers a document that lists Rev. Nelson William Stockbridge as a Methodist minister, revealing a likely clergical link in Nelson’s adult years.

Nelson’s autograph book is one of many in the Hocken archival collection – and some of them are stunning. A stroll through the collections (or a search on Hākena) shows there was much more to autograph books than witty rhyming ditties, particularly if we step back a little earlier in their history.

So how long have autograph books been around? At a guess, I’d have said a century or so.

I’d have been wrong.

Autograph books originated in the mid-sixteenth century in Europe when travelling university students carried these small, leather-bound albums and collected the sentiments and comments of their patrons, mentors and companions – a bit like a pre-internet LinkedIn. In those times when only male offspring were deemed worth educating at universities, collecting autographs would have been a male-only occupation.

The first true autograph books appeared in German and Dutch linguistic regions, possibly originating in Wittenberg. (Thank you, Wikipedia).

Known as an album amicorum (‘book of friends’) or stammbuch (‘friendship book’), the oldest autograph book on record is that of Claude de Senarclens, an associate of John Calvin, and dates back to 1545. By the end of the century, they were common among students and scholars throughout Germany.

The Germans and Dutch may have invented the autograph book. But, from the evidence I’ve seen in the Hocken’s own autograph book collection, it was the women of Victorian and Edwardian times who took autograph collecting to a whole new artistic level.

Simon, Margaret : Autograph and sketch book (1905-c.1910), MS-3564

Margaret Simon, or Peggy as she was known, was one of eight children of James and Ellen Simon. The family owned a business, Simon Brothers, which imported and manufactured footwear, and their home was in Mornington, Dunedin.

A beautiful autograph and sketchbook was kept by Peggy Simon from 1905 until around the time of her marriage to Rudolph Wark in 1910. Peggy and Rudolph settled in Christchurch after their marriage and the autograph book, along with a family photograph, was donated to the Hocken in 2010 by Peggy’s nephew, Herbert William Tennet.

The Simon family. Peggy is pictured standing back left. Simon, Margaret : Autograph and sketch book (1905-c.1910), MS-3564

Autographers (is that even a word?) put a lot of time, skill and thought into creating their small piece of posterity in a friend’s autograph book. Just look at the illlustrations in these examples from Peggy Simon’s album.

Simon, Margaret : Autograph and sketch book (1905-c.1910), MS-3564

Definition of a friend
A friend – one human being whom we can
Trust always, who knows the best and the
worst of us, and who loves us in spite of
our faults
23-9-07 Jep Cameron, Dunedin

Simon, Margaret : Autograph and sketch book (1905-c.1910), MS-3564

I’ll not deny women are foolish
God Almighty made them so
To match the men.
T.C. 1907
Trot Cameron

Simon, Margaret : Autograph and sketch book (1905-c.1910), MS-3564

Flowers often appear in autograph illustrations and pansies seem to be a favourite. At first, I wondered why pansies, rather than forget-me-nots or rosemary (for remembrance). Was it because pansies are pretty, colourful and fun to paint?

A contributor to Isabella Blair’s autograph book revealed the answer – a phrase linked to Ophelia, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Tily, Isabella : Autograph book (1909-1951), Misc-MS-0915

There is pansies, that’s for thoughts…

Another contributor to Isabella’s album had a slightly different version of the same sentiment…

Tily, Isabella : Autograph book (1909-1951), Misc-MS-0915

Dusky pansies, let them be for memory
Anne D. Craig
O.U.
Dunedin

And of course, forget-me-nots do make the occasional appearance in these floral tributes.

Tily, Isabella : Autograph book (1909-1951), Misc-MS-0915

Men are often capable of greater things
than they perform. They are sent into
the world with bills of credit, and
seldom draw to their full extent

Isabella Blair (later to be Isabella Tily) was a student of Dunedin Teachers’ College and Otago University and many of the contributors to her autograph album have added the abbreviations OU or TC after their names. Like many others of the Victorian/Edwardian period, the album is a reflection of Isabella’s early adult life. One friend has even sketched what seems to be a portrait of Isabella at that time.

Tily, Isabella : Autograph book (1909-1951) Misc-MS-0915

Compare the sketch with this photograph of Isabella Tily in later years, when she and husband Harry Tily were keen members of the Dunedin Naturalists’ Field Club and Isabella wrote regular articles on birds for Dunedin’s Evening Star. (The bird in the photograph is a kererū fledgling which she raised after finding it fallen from its nest.)

Isabella Tily with kererū chick (Originals P97-155/4)

After completing her teacher training, Isabella went on to teach at Green Island School, just as the First World War was ending. She took her autograph book with her and collected the autographs, photographs and thoughts of her fellow teachers in 1918.

Tily, Isabella : Autograph book (1909-1951) Misc-MS-0915

A few years later, Dunedin schoolboy Jack Smith was also a keen collector of autographs. Jack was an Otago Boys High School first eleven cricketer and avid sports fan. Picture a schoolboy, pen and autograph book in hand, racing across the playing field, collecting the signatures of his heroes at the end of the game. But Jack was more than an autograph collector. He also illustrated his album pages with schoolboy enthusiasm.

Smith, Jack : Autograph Book (c.1920-1947), Misc-MS-1879

Jack’s album not only provides a glimpse of the sporting highlights of that period. He was also there on the spot when Byrd’s Antarctic Expedition set forth from Dunedin in 1930.

Smith, Jack : Autograph Book (c.1920-1947), Misc-MS-1879

Finally, there’s one more autograph album that absolutely deserves a mention. It’s perhaps my personal favourite and dates back to that late Victorian period when young ladies – or at least those of upper/middle-class upbringing – had time for leisurely pursuits like autograph-collecting and an education that included skills in sketching and the use of watercolours.

Kathleen Creagh. Album 174 Creagh family : Portraits

Kathleen Creagh was one such young woman. Born in Oamaru in 1882, she compiled her autograph album during her young adult years and, from the similar style of many of the sketches, seems to have illustrated many of the pages herself after collecting the autographs and thoughts of friends and family.

Middleditch, Mary : Autograph book of Kathleen Creagh (1897-1934), Misc-MS-0826

Take a closer look at the detail in some of Kathleen’s sketches. These illustrations are tiny – only a couple of centimetres square. It’s interesting to note they also have a somewhat ‘English’ feel to them, given that Kathleen herself was born and raised in Oamaru.

Middleditch, Mary : Autograph book of Kathleen Creagh (1897-1934), Misc-MS-0826

Not all Kathleen’s illustrations were romantic country scenes, however. A Halloween-esque verse shows she also had a keen sense of fun.

Middleditch, Mary : Autograph book of Kathleen Creagh (1897-1934), Misc-MS-0826

Kathleen went on to marry Charles Napier in 1906 and the couple had a daughter, Mary, who was also a talented artist. Mary Napier specialised in mosaics and worked as a theatre producer. She married sculptor John Middleditch and, in later years, donated both her mother’s autograph album and a Creagh family photograph album to the Hocken, along with papers relating to the Middleditchs themselves.

Charles Napier (2nd left) and Kathleen Creagh (on his right). Moeraki, 1906. Album 174 Creagh family : Portraits

So not only did Kathleen keep the autograph book of her youth for her own lifetime; it later became a treasured possession of her daughter, ultimately being entrusted to the care of Hocken. It illustrates a longevity in autograph books that far outlasts the modern-day postings made on Facebook.

Maybe it’s time to revive that autograph book tradition, so that others in the future can catch a glimpse of our own modern-day social lives. A Christmas stocking-stuffer perhaps?

Middleditch, Mary : Autograph book of Kathleen Creagh (1897-1934), Misc-MS-0826

A lost book recovered: Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton; to which are added a few Poems by her Father, Mr James Dods

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022 | Hocken Collections | No Comments

Post researched and written by Christopher Meech, Head Curator Publications, Hocken Collections

Every now and then a find quite unexpected and novel comes through the doors at Hocken. A small book titled Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton, to which are added a few Poems by her Father Mr James Dods[1], is such a remarkable find. This modest publication has been largely forgotten by history and has a unique and special tale behind it.

Title page Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton, to which are added a few Poems by her Father Mr James Dods

Written in 1867 and published and printed in the goldfields frontier town of Lawrence, Otago, this wee gem of a volume has evaded public collections for more than 150 years. Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton is not recorded in the Bagnall’s monumental New Zealand National Bibliography to the year 1960[2], nor is it mentioned in any subsequent print or electronic bibliographies. It is a lost book recovered.

Original Poetry is the first poetic offering by colonial settler poet Christina Fulton and was greeted with favorable reviews in national newspapers when it was published[3]. It includes poems inspired by the local environment such as Dunedin in the early part of 1863; Collision at Port Chalmers, 1863; The Clutha and Tuapeka. Fulton’s poems record her thought and experience as a woman in settler society. Some poems celebrate the natural environment and domestic life, others speak to a sense of separation from family, others still to exotic lands and people. The book is dedicated to Christina’s father, John Dods, and also includes a selection of his poetry. The following year, in 1868, Fulton published a second poetic offering Lella: a poem. It was the last book she would write.

‘Dunedin’ by Christina Fulton

The Dunedin character, pamphleteer, and politician J.G.S. Grant recounts in his Dunedin newspaper the Saturday Review the tale of how Christina Fulton’s Original poetry came to be published:

“The history of this little volume of 131 pages is a romantic episode in literature. About seven months ago we made a tour of Otago, and among other places, we paid a visit to Blue Spur. It was a very wet morning when, in company with Mr. Greig, Tuapeka ‘Press,’ we started from Lawrence, and proceeded, via Wetherstone’s village, along the ranges of the Blue Spur. After inspecting the sluicing operations at the head of Gabriel’s Gully …we entered a pretty little cottage, and being perfectly saturated with wet, warmed and dried ourselves over against a roaring fire, and partook of an elegant repast, hospitably spread out before us by the polite lady of the cottage. She — having learned our name from the gentlemen accompanying us — brought out from her desk a beautiful album, and modestly requested us to favour her with our opinion of the merits of sundry poems therein elegantly engrossed. On opening the album before the cheerful fire, after having refreshed our languishing frame with the good things of this life, our spirits began to revive, and we forgot that we were in the midst of a waste howling desert, and began to scan the verses of the manuscript. After a pause of meditation, we closed the book, gave it to the lady, and inly exclaiming “Eureka ! Eureka !” like the ancient sage, importuned our fair hostess to hand it over to Mr. Greig for publication. Reluctantly, on the strength of our commendation she assented, and so we, accompanied by Mr. Greig, retraced our steps to Lawrence…”[4]

Christina Dods was born in Edinburgh in 1838 to James Dods and Helen Sinclair. She and the family migrated to Melbourne in 1853 and soon moved to the goldfields of Bendigo. In 1856 Christina married Robert Gammell Fulton. Christina and Robert were lured to Otago by the promise of gold and settled at Blur Spur, Otago. By 1868 the Fulton’s cottage at Blue Spur had been virtually sluiced out from under them. This, coupled with the bitter southern winters led to the Fultons move to Fiji that year. The Fultons sailed on the ‘Banshee’ on 20 September 1868 and established a plantation at Valaga in Savu Bay on Vanua Levu, together with Christina’s father, mother and brothers. Christina was only to live another six years, by 1874 she had passed away, a victim of the insalubrious Fijian climate. Christina and Robert had no children together.

Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton, to which are added a few Poems by her Father Mr James Dods was generously donated to the Hocken Collections by the great-great-grandson of Mrs Catherine McNab, the Rev. Michael Wallace, in April 2021. It is the only known extant copy and bears a dedication on the title page to Mrs McNab from Mrs Fulton. Flowers and leaves have been pressed between the book’s pages. Thanks to Rowan Gibbs for his excellent research and article ‘Christina Fulton, 1838-1874’[5].

Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton is available to be viewed at Hocken Collections.

Pressed flowers associated with the Hocken copy of Original Poetry

[1] https://otago.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma9925830048201891&context=U&vid=64OTAGO_INST:DUNEDIN&lang=en

[2] Bagnall, A.G. (Eds) New Zealand national bibliography to the year 1960

[3] Bruce Herald, Volume IV, Issue 168, 10 July 1867, p.6 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BH18670710.2.26

[4] Saturday Review, 25 May 1867 pp.543-4

[5] Poetry notes, Win 2017; v.8 n.2:p.1-7 https://poetryarchivenz.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/poetry-notes-winter-2017.pdf

Stirring up the stacks #11: Gourmet food in minutes

Thursday, October 13th, 2022 | Hocken Collections | No Comments

Post cooked up by Emma Scott, Collections Assistant – Publications

My Hocken colleagues are sick of hearing about my love for the air fryer. My air fryer has been moved out of the cupboard and has a permanent home on the kitchen bench. This move is significant as it could have easily been banished to the bottom cupboard with the toastie pie maker and the fondue set. The other appliance in my kitchen on full display is the humble microwave. Like most households, my microwave is used for two things: defrosting and reheating. While it is out of the cupboard due to the two vital functions it performs, I know that I am not realising the microwave’s full potential. It is time to dust off the instruction manual and put my microwave to the test.

This poor little microwave has no idea what’s coming…

According to Te Ara the first microwave ovens appeared in New Zealand in the early 1970s but did not become common until the early 1980s when cookbooks started to include microwave recipes.[1] Growing up in the 90s I remember microwave cookbooks in almost every home I visited. My Mum regularly cooked two recipes in the microwave: custard and chocolate self-saucing pudding (both of which were delicious). The most exciting part about cooking food in the microwave is how little time it takes. For busy families or for people like myself who prefer browsing Netflix to staring at the stove top, the microwave certainly appeals.

Helen Leach states in her book Kitchens: the New Zealand Kitchen in the 20^th Century that microwaves weren’t well received overseas. The weight of the early microwaves, the servicing costs and the fears people had about being exposed to radiation were some of the reasons for their lack of popularity. Helen states on page 241 that:

“…few New Zealanders understood the physics behind microwave ovens. They did not understand the difference between the more potent ionising radiation (as in x-rays and gamma rays) and non-ionising radiation (as in radio waves, microwaves, infra-red and invisible light). Some people confused heat –producing microwave radiation with radioactivity.”

It is very understandable that people would be fearful about using the microwave. How would you know the difference between ionising and non-ionising radiation unless you remembered being taught about it, had an interest in science, or worked in a field which required that kind of knowledge? Despite some of the public’s misgivings, by the end of 1983, 1 in 10 New Zealand homes had a microwave oven. ([2], p.242)

The Hocken Library has a significant collection of microwave cookbooks dated from 1979 to 1995, except for one which is dated 2005. I found several recipes I wanted to try from the cookbooks in our collection. I must admit that I am a little apprehensive about how appetising these recipes will be, having turned a crispy golden Jimmy’s pie into a soggy mess using a microwave in the past. I chose a recipe for scrambled eggs just purely out of interest and planned a “gourmet” dinner for myself and my partner using Chef Mike.

Recipe number one from: Alison Holst’s Microwave Book [3]

Scrambled Eggs

Melt a teaspoon of butter in a suitable shallow dish.
Break an egg into it. Add 1-2 tablespoons milk and beat with a fork until mixed
Microwave on high for about 20 seconds, until the egg is partly set, then stir with the fork. Add a little chopped parsley or chives if desired.
Microwave again on high for about 20 seconds long. Stir gently again. Egg will continue cooking as it stands.
If it is not firm enough after a minute, microwave again for a short time.
Use medium or defrost and longer times if preferred or if white and yolk have not been completely mixed.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I love scrambled eggs! This recipe pleasantly surprised me. I shouldn’t have doubted Alison. The eggs were too wet after step four, so I had to zap them for a few more minutes. The texture of the eggs was more like an omelette than scrambled eggs, but with a good stir and some seasoning it wasn’t too bad. A solid 3 out of 5 stars.

For our gourmet dinner I decided to create a menu. Making Coq Au Vin appealed to me as several famous chefs have a recipe for Coq Au Vin including Julia Child, Jamie Oliver, Jacques Pepin, and Mary Berry. I’m sure Julia Child would be turning in her grave watching me zap this chicken in the microwave though. I chose the “Sticky Rice with Coconut Cream” for dessert as I just love rice pudding.

Recipe no. 2 (main course) from: Microwaving Main Meals and Desserts: the New Zealand Way by Sheryl Brownlee. [4]

Coq Au Vin

4 rashers of bacon

50g flour

125 ml water

125ml dry red wine

2-3 Tbsp brandy (optional)

2 Tbsp fresh parsley

1 bay leaf

1 large onion cut into rings

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of chicken stock powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

250g mushrooms sliced

1.5 kg chicken pieces

Trim and cut bacon into small even pieces, place in 4 litre casserole dish and micro-cook on high power for 3-4 min.
Stir in flour, water and red wine. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring to coat the chicken pieces.
Cover and micro-cook on high power for 15 min. Sir well and cook for a further 15 min. Stand for 10 min, remove bay leaf and serve.

The microwave began making some loud popping sounds while cooking this dish which was a bit concerning. When I added the wine to the bacon, flour, and water things weren’t looking very promising. The dish also looked very murky after the first zap but looked better after the second.

The dish turned out pretty well despite initial appearances. I feel the wine we added to the dish, the Esk Valley Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon, made a big difference. Our overall thoughts were that the flavour was a 4 out of 5 and the consistency was a 2 out of 5. The dish pleasantly surprised us and we gobbled up the whole thing, good job Sheryl.

Now for dessert!

Recipe no.3 (dessert) from: The Gourmet Microwave Cookbook: Creative International Menus from the Microwave by Jan Bilton. [5]

Sticky Rice with Coconut Cream

1 cup glutinous (sticky) rice

1 ½ cups of coconut cream

Pinch salt

5 tablespoons sugar syrup

6 large kiwifruit or other fresh fruit in season

Prepare the rice up to 2 days in advance. Sugar syrup is prepared by boiling equal parts of sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved,
Wash rice well under cold running water then soak it overnight. Drain and place in a casserole with ½ cup of boiling water. Stir well.
Cover and cook on high (100%) power for 5 minutes. Stir well. Add another ½ cup of boiling water, stir, cover, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Stir, cover, and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Reserve ½ cup of coconut cream. Add remaining cream to the rice with a pinch of salt. Stir in sugar syrup.
Peel and slice fruit and place in attractively on a serving place. Using a dessertspoon, place a small mound of rice beside the fruit. Top with reserved coconut cream.

This dish was very straightforward to cook, no weird sounds. This recipe was great, though I am a little biased as I love rice pudding. The kiwifruit on top added a lovely freshness to the dish. A very solid 4 out of 5 stars.

I must admit that I was sceptical about cooking these dishes in the microwave, so I was thrilled with how well they turned out. I will be encouraging everyone to dust off their microwave cookbooks and give the recipes a try.

Toitū Otago Settlers Museum has an exhibition space dedicated to the twentieth century which has an incredible display of historical appliances. The exhibition space really demonstrates how society and technology has changed rapidly over a short period of time. While using a microwave to cook most of your meals may seem like a thing of the past, I suspect it is only a matter of time before my beloved air fryer is thought of in the same way.

References

[1] Burton, David. ‘Cooking – Cooking technology’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/cooking/page-1 (accessed 24 May 2022)

[2] Leach, Helen. Kitchens: the New Zealand Kitchen in the 20^th Century. Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2014.

[3] Holst, Alison. Alison Holst’s Microwave Book. Wellington: INL Print, 1982.

[4] Brownlee, Sheryl. Microwaving Main Meals and Desserts: the New Zealand Way. Auckland: David Bateman, 1988.

[5] Bilton, Jan. The Gourmet Microwave Cookbook: Creative International Menus from the Microwave. Auckland: Viking Pacific, 1990.

What else have we cooked up?

Stirring up the stacks #10: Celebrity Sister O’Regan’s carrot salad

Stirring up the stacks #9: Two for the price of one! Macaroni soup and ginger pudding

Stirring up the stacks #8: Xmas Cake Recipe Recommended by “Buckhams”

Stirring up the stacks #7: Virginia pudding

Stirring up the stacks #6: Pumpkin pie

Stirring up the stacks #5: Sauerkraut roll

Stirring up the stacks #4: A “delicious cake from better times”

Stirring up the stacks #3: Bycroft party starters

Stirring up the stacks #2: The parfait on the blackboard

Stirring up the stacks #1: Variety salad in tomato aspic

Book Review Corner: ‘These Violent Delights’ by Chloe Gong

Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 | Hocken Collections | No Comments

Post written by Collections Assistant – Publications, Gini Jory

‘The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.’

In this 1920s retelling of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, a blood feud between two rival gangs that has been going on for generations has swept Shanghai into chaos. The Scarlets, with their newly returned heir from America, Juliette Cai, have previously been almost unchallenged for power, except by their rivals, the Russian White Flowers. But now with the various colonial powers as well as the Chinese Nationalists and Communist party all vying for control of the ancient city, the lawless power of the gangs is being threatened. And when gangsters on both sides start ripping their own throats out, their strenuous hold on power starts to slip even more as the people start whispering of a madness, and a monster in the shadows. To figure out who is behind the madness and save her people, Juliette must team up with the heir to the White Flowers, Roma Montagov- her first lover, and her first betrayal.

Welcome back to the Book Review Corner of the Hocken blog! In this post we discuss New Zealand author Chloe Gong’s New York Times Bestseller These Violent Delights, a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920’s Shanghai featuring a horrible monster, political intrigue, queer characters, and a scathing takedown of colonialism. If you like Shakespeare, historical fiction and fantasy, this might be right up your alley!

Before we get into These Violent Delights, I want to take a moment to talk about its author, Chloe Gong. She is only 23 and finished writing this book at 19. NINETEEN. When it was released in November 2020 it debuted at no.3 on the New York Times Bestseller List and was on there for over six months, which is an incredible achievement for a first novel. The sequel Our Violent Ends came out in late 2021 to equal success, and Gong already has a spinoff series in the work with the first book being released this September, and an adult fantasy series due out 2023. Born in Shanghai, Gong grew up on the North Shore but went to university in America as she knew that was where she’d want to publish. She’s been writing since she was 13, and These Violent Delights was her eighth completed manuscript. And while many might think she’s a bit young to be so successful (most young adult authors are a lot further removed from the intended age genre), I think this is in part why she’s been so successful. She knows what young adults are looking at online, how they come across content and what will make them purchase a book. Gong’s own tiktok is a great example of her own marketing- she was creating videos of makeup looks inspired by the White Flowers, sharing quotes from her novels and inspirations for these, and following viral trends. And it worked- I heard about this book from an Asian-American ‘bookstagram’ creator I follow on Instagram, and the creator sounded so genuinely excited about it that I pre-ordered my personal copy that day. This is the kind of organic work of mouth marketing that Gong was aiming for, and it has obviously aided her success.

Back to the review. I really loved this book, and thought it was a great modernisation of such a classic story. Romeo and Juliet was never my favourite Shakespeare play but Gong has really taken it in a much darker direction. In this adaptation we no longer have two very young star-crossed lovers but two bitter and jaded eighteen-year-olds whose secret love affair when they were fifteen ended in disaster and betrayal. Juliette has recently returned from America a true flapper, with beaded dresses and gelled hair to take her place as heir to the Scarlet gang empire- an empire that is under threat from foreign powers. Roma is seemingly on the verge of losing his place as heir to the White Flowers as the gap between himself and his father widens. Both are on rocky ground when a madness starts to spread through Shanghai, affecting members of both their gangs as they are infected by some sort of insect and compelled to rip their own throats out. (Warning- there are a few very gory descriptions of violence in this book.) When they run into each other as they are both separately investigating the cause of the madness, they realise it is within their best interests to work together and use both of their connections to solve the mystery. But as their families have a rival blood feud, they must do so in secret, not even telling their closest friends.

The new family and friends Gong introduces was part of what really sold this book to me. There are the obvious adaptations- Tyler for Tybalt, Marshall for Mercutio, Benedikt for Benvolio- but Gong also introduces female cousins for Juliette, to give her someone her own age and gender to confide in. These cousins, Rosalind and Kathleen are the cornerstone of Juliet’s family life and give a view of how others in her family are treated in the Scarlet gang hierarchy. Roma is also given a younger sister, Alisa- perhaps to make him slightly less impulsive and willing to sacrifice his own life. These family and friends are given their own point of view chapters as well, so we get the story not only from the sometimes very jaded views of our main couple. It is also through these characters that Gong subtlety and naturally introduces queerness into an otherwise very straight world.

When Kathleen is introduced to us, waiting tables at a Scarlet club, the indication that she is trans is so subtle I completely missed it the first time through:

Rosalind used to tell her that someone was going to snatch such a precious stone if she wore it so obviously, but Kathleen liked it there. If people were to stare at her throat, she always said she would rather it be because of the pendant than the bump of her Adam’s apple underneath.

Kathleen is never misgendered by any character, and her cousin and sister always come to her staunch defence if anyone even looks like they might insult her for being trans. But unfortunately her trans identity has not always been valid or easy. When her father finally accepts that she is trans it is only under very specific circumstances that he allows her to present as woman, and she must take on someone else’s identity, not the one she had chosen for herself. I think it can be difficult with queer characters to walk the line between overused and upsetting tropes (such as the bury your gays trope used in a lot of media, especially for lesbian characters) and acting as though their queer identity would be fully accepted, especially in a historical setting (there are absolutely settings where discrimination does not have to exist though). While Kathleen is given a tragic backstory she is also given important roles within the story by her cousin, has her own agency, and in the present text is never looked down on for her trans identity.

We also get gay representation in the form of Roma’s best friends, Benedikt and Marshall. Their relationship is very much a slow burn, and while we don’t get to see them admit their feelings for each other in this book, their POV chapters make it very clear how they feel about one another. They are extremely close and live together, but both are afraid of ruining their friendship and of the repercussions they would face from the leaders of the White Flowers if they were to come out.

Another great aspect of this adaptation is the historical setting of 1920s Shanghai. Not only do we get the glitz and glamour of the American flapper age through Juliette and her fantastic dresses and styled hair, but it is set against the very real colonisation that took place in China during this time after their loss in the Opium Wars. Juliette often makes remarks about foreigners taking parts of the city for themselves, and her family is constantly scrambling to make agreements with the Nationalists so they can still maintain a semblance of their power. Communism is spreading through the workers of the city, and historically there were thousands of strikes across Shanghai in 1926 due to the terrible wages and working conditions. The Scarlet gang is also loosely based around the Green gang, a secret society and criminal organisation prominent in the mid 20^th century, and while there was no equivalent of the White Flowers, Shanghai was a free port and many Russians ended up there after fleeing from the civil war. I personally love a historical backdrop in any novel, and having this very real pressure of foreigners, Nationalists and Communists all fighting for the city is an integral part of the story.

Overall, this is a great book and I would really recommend it if you enjoy modern Shakespeare, the enemies to lovers trope, queer fiction, murder mysteries, monster hunting, and historical backdrops.

Interested in reading this? These Violent Delights is in our published collections and can be used on site in our reading room.

References:

Gong, C. 2020. These Violent Delights. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Zhang, S. 2020. ‘Chloe Gong is 21, she’s from the North Shore, and she just wrote a US bestseller’ The Spinoff. 24 December 2020. Accessed 2 September 2022. https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/04-12-2020/chloe-gong-is-21-shes-from-the-north-shore-and-she-just-wrote-a-us-bestseller

Interview – Julie Dunn from trace/untrace records

Tuesday, May 31st, 2022 | Hocken Collections | No Comments

Post researched and written by Amanda Mills. Curator Music and AV

Julie Dunn (Kai Tahu / Kāti Māmoe) has been a key figure in the Ōtepoti Dunedin music scene since founding the independent label trace/untrace records in 2017 with label partner Richard Ley Hamilton. The label has released key recordings (many on the it-will-never-die cassette format) by a large number of emerging and up-and-coming local Dunedin artists, including Neive Strang, Koizilla, Adelaide Cara, Asta Rangu, Night Lunch, and Dunn and Hamilton’s band Bathysphere.

The theme of Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa / New Zealand Music Month 2022 is ‘level up’ – encouraging all members of the music industry to raise awareness of new, emerging, and up-and-coming musical artists. This includes supporting these artists in their music career development and helping them to cross over to a broader audience. trace/untrace records have been key in doing this mahi.

To celebrate Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa / New Zealand Music Month 2022, Hocken Collections Music and AV Curator, Amanda Mills, spoke to Julie Dunn about trace/untrace records, their music background, and the local Ōtepoti Dunedin music scene.

Heaven is Other People. Bathysphere. trace/untrace records, 2017. Hocken Music Collections, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena. Cover image taken by Susan Dunn. Reproduced with permission by Julie Dunn.

Hocken Collections: What is your musical background?

Julie Dunn: “I was introduced to the local music scene when I snuck into an Idiot Prayer gig in my final year of school (2011). It was eye-opening to say the very least (life changing might be a more accurate way to put it…). From that time on I started gravitating towards the scene and the people who had introduced me to it, and within a year I had become a dedicated roadie to my friends’ band A Distant City (Josh Nicholls, Zac Nicholls, Nick Tipa, CJ Holley). Over the years their bands would proliferate at speed, however all the while I remained in the role of roadie / manager / merch maker / door person. It wasn’t until after trace / untrace had begun that I started to write my own music, and alongside that formed Mary Berry and played my first gig in 2018.”

What made you decide to establish trace/untrace and support local artists?

“Years of being involved with the scene had fostered a great love of Dunedin music and the people here who make it. The number of bands that my friends were gigging in was increasing at speed, and at that time there were about four releases recorded and ready to see the light of day. Richard and I decided to action an idea we had been chewing on for some time and start a small label to collect those releases together. Our main kaupapa at that time was to support the bands to create freely by helping them to handle the (often off-putting) admin bits that come with releasing music, and to find a way to make a physical format more accessible by making cassettes ourselves.”

How long have you been involved with the label?

“Since it started in 2017!”

Where did the label name come from?

“We brainstormed a bunch of names, mostly from music that inspired us. trace / untrace was a riff off the Sonic Youth lyrics in their song New Hampshire, ‘trace paper fly onwards’. It also alludes to the ephemeral nature of so much Dunedin music, especially that stuff which only existed in band practices and at gigs, and which was never recorded. Even things that were recorded were often removed later from Bandcamp by the artists. Although we were about to start immortalising people’s music in the form of cassettes, we wanted to preserve that wairua and centralise it within our mahi.”

trace/untrace releases some material on cassette. What was the attraction of that format?

“There are so many things that I love about cassettes! Initially it was just that they were the cheapest, easiest thing to make, and it was something that we could produce at home rather than having to outsource. Once we started to make them I came to realise also that they are a hugely tactile format, in the same way as vinyl I guess, in the winding of the reels and physicality of the analog medium. I love the sound quality as well, the cassette lends a compression to the music that always tends to compliment the type of music that we release. I have always had circa 1994 vehicles with their original tape players intact and loved the sturdiness of my tapes in comparison to how I remember CD’s performing. When I bought Peter’s first Fazed on a Pony cassette I played it on repeat in the car for about 4 months every day and it’s still going strong.”

What was your involvement with the rehearsal/performance space the Attic?

“The Attic had many forms over the decade or so that it was a home to creatives in Dunedin. I became involved a few years after its inception when my partner formed a band (Space Bats, Attack!) with Lee Nicholson, one of the members there. From that time in 2012, it supported every band that we were involved with, and a thriving community grew up around it. I think there’s no way trace / untrace would exist without it; in many ways the two things were synonymous – the Attic was the place, trace / untrace was the face. It’s so true that often you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone, and although I always felt so lucky to be a part of the Attic and the community it represented, I only now appreciate how empowering it was for us to have a space that we had a level of agency over to springboard our projects out into the wider scene. We are sorely feeling the loss now! “

The theme of Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa / New Zealand Music Month 2022 is ‘level up’ – supporting emerging or up-and-coming artists. Do you see much support for emerging artists in the wider local music community?

“In Dunedin there’s definitely an incredible culture of tautoko for younger bands. Initiatives like Amped Music Project have been amazing in driving that sort of mahi, and even informally there is so much interest in younger people and the music they are making. If I’m completely honest, sometimes I feel like bands down in Dunedin can be overlooked within the national music scene purely because we are out of the way, and potentially have to push harder for the same amount of recognition in comparison to bands who live in the bigger centres. Funding-wise this can often be apparent, and I think it’s likely related to the criteria for getting that funding being based on things that are made easier by living in a main centre. However, as has been the story for years now in Dunedin, our single biggest challenge is the lack of venues and landlords willing to rent practice spaces to musicians!”

Where do you think the local music scene and independent label scene is heading?

“More bands, and more diversity in those bands. As we all recover from the Covid thing I expect there is going to be a lot of pent-up energy released over the next few years in the form of high-output.”

How would you describe the current Dunedin music scene?

“To be honest I have been pretty out of touch with it recently as Covid has put me deep in to hermit mode. To me the Dunedin music scene is currently embodied by the Crown Hotel and those bands that play there almost every weekend. Obviously I can only speak for my own niche in the scene but it feels like the energy is there in spite of the venue situation. Albums are still coming out every month and tours are back on, hopefully there’s good things on the horizon.”

What is next for trace/untrace?

“Next year we are losing the Bank St HQ and will need to find a new recording studio / practice space. Aside from that, there are heaps of releases that I’m so excited to announce over the next few months, and without a doubt are some of the best music we will have ever released! We’ll just keep churning out the tunes regardless of anyone listening.”

For further information on trace/untrace records, check their website https://www.traceuntracerecords.com/

Many thanks to Julie Dunn for taking the time to answer these questions – kia ora Julie

Stirring up the stacks #10: celebrity Sister O’Regan’s carrot salad

Wednesday, April 13th, 2022 | Hocken Collections | No Comments

Post cooked up by Jen Anderson, Collections Assistant – Publications

People who work with heritage material often find themselves compelled to demonstrate its relevance to contemporary society. Some connections are obvious, and some require a little more lateral thinking. Initially I intended to justify this carrot-themed post via the Easter bunny, but having tasted the results of my carrot salad attempt, I realise that it more readily fits Lenten themes of mortification and repentance.

The recipe I tried comes from : Celebrities’ choice cook book : a unique collection of recipes from N.Z. celebrities / [compiled by the Canterbury/West Coast Region of the N.Z. Red Cross Society].

Vegetables, fruit, textiles and earthenware: the enticing cover of
‘Celebrities’ choice cook book : a unique collection of recipes from N.Z. celebrities’.

This book was published in 1991, but being a compilation of tried-and-true favourite recipes, it is a veritable time capsule from the pantheon of NZ’s illustrious. Ever wanted to try Geoffrey Palmer’s chili con carne? How about Judith Kirk’s fish bake? I was tempted by The Wizard’s microwave chocolate self-saucing pudding, but in the end there was only one possible recipe.

Deep breath.

Carrot salad.

Now, I’ve always had a troubled relationship with cooked carrots. This is the legacy of childhood memories of carrot disks in casserole, the brimming-with-flavour carrots and white sauce, and – horror of horrors – mashed carrot and parsnip [a.k.a. rainbow vegetable]. Normally a carrot salad would bypass the cooking, but this recipe is a little different. It starts out reasonably; carrots, green pepper, onion, salt. It is in the second column of ingredients that you really start questioning the life choices that led you to this point.

1kg carrots

1 green pepper

1 onion

1 (450g) tin tomato soup

1 cup sugar

½ cup cooking oil

½ cup vinegar

Pepper and salt

Instructions follow:

Cut carrots in rings and cook.

Chop the green pepper and onion and cook in tomato soup, sugar, oil and vinegar.

When cooked mix in the cooked carrots.

The recipe for the inimitable carrot salad

I’m not much of a chef, but looking at the recipe you’d think it wasn’t complex. What could possibly go wrong? I don’t know what I did, but my creation would not elicit the rapturous community response received by the author, Sister Pauline M. O’Regan.

“This salad is a great favourite of our Community, and one or other of us invariably brings it to pot-luck meals and barbeques in summer. People always ask for the recipe. It’s a great feeling.”

I trust Sister Pauline O’Regan implicitly. She sounds like an extraordinary person who did a lot of good for her communities while authoring some very well -regarded books. Going by this photograph on Te Ara, she also knew how to host a successful casual outdoor gathering. Surely the problem was not the recipe, but my execution.

Look at what I made. Empty your mind and just look at it.

The pièce de résistance

I tried some fancy plating, but it was irredeemable.

The salad, plated. Enough said.

I was left with a catering sized supply of cooked carrot salad which, under COVID restrictions, could not be shared with my delightful colleagues.

The thick layer of oil wasn’t even the worst of it. Nor was the tooth-aching amount of sugar. No, it was the sheer ratio of dressing to carrot. Believe me, I boiled 450 g of tomato soup and vinegar mix ferociously in an attempt to reduce it. The kitchen was filled with a vinegar-tinged miasma. The capsicum had lost structural integrity and the onion was slimy yet the mixture defied attempts at evaporation. Eventually I gave up and added the carrot (cooked al dente, although I know the original 70s version would have been for 30 minutes or until done).

The sound when I stirred it haunts me to this day. I don’t know how to describe it. Loose wallpaper paste? Creamed corn with clumps? Whatever it was, it was eldritch. This looked and smelled like something that, if consumed, should be done so in private mortification while crying. Dear reader, I tried a tentative forkfull and was hit by sugary carrot overlaid with vinegar and an oily finish. It was Not Nice.

In a Hail Mary I tried following the recipe recommendation: “This salad is best prepared the day before use and kept in the fridge (it will keep in the fridge for several days).” The flavour may have infused overnight, but it certainly didn’t improve. Perhaps it is best described as entrenching. I left the salad in the fridge for several days and I can verify that it is a very low theft risk because no-one else in the household touched it.

I don’t doubt that this recipe can be executed well. I’ve talked with people who remember it fondly from their BBQ and salad days. Tell me, dear readers, how did I mess it up so catastrophically? Can someone explain how to cook this properly? Maybe a 450g tin of soup is inclusive of tin weight, so I measured out too much? Should I have chosen a better vinegar? Was the pepper and salt quantity lacking? Does anyone have any advice for attempt #2, the one where I make colleagues eat and review it? Tell me about your success stories. Or do you have a more entry-level carrot salad recipe to suggest?

What else have we cooked up?

Stirring up the stacks #9: two for the price of one! Macaroni soup and ginger pudding

Stirring up the stacks #8: Xmas Cake Recipe Recommended by “Buckhams”

Stirring up the stacks #7: Virginia pudding

Stirring up the stacks #6: Pumpkin pie

Stirring up the stacks #5: Sauerkraut roll

Stirring up the stacks #4: A “delicious cake from better times”

Stirring up the stacks #3: Bycroft party starters

Stirring up the stacks #2 The parfait on the blackboard

Stirring up the stacks #1 Variety salad in tomato aspic