Paekakariki Station Museum – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

Volunteers Urgently Needed

10th September 2012

JOIN THE MUSEUM VOLUNTEERS!

Paekakariki Rail and Heritage Museum urgently needs volunteers………………

Paekakariki Station Museum tells the stories of our village, the Maori way of life, Pakeha settlement, the railway village and the dramatic years of the US Marines presence.

The museum has displays of local Mäori and Heritage items along with sections devoted to Railways and the Marine occupation of the McKays Crossing area during WWII.

At present the Museum is wonderfully well served by the sixteen local people who staff it.

But….. we need more volunteer attendants to help at the Station Museum on the days it is open to the public – Saturdays and Sundays only at present.

Our commitments are that we will* give you training* seek your ideas and advice* keep you informed about developments* make you as comfortable as possible

They serve for duties of two hours once a month, on the same weekend each month so that they know their commitments a year ahead. However a telephone tree is provided which lets volunteers swap duties should the need arise.

Since our last appeal two new volunteers have come aboard, but we need a few more people to turn out about five times a year, for two hours a time. That will let us open on some public holidays, like Queens Birthday, and will help with the four months which have five weekends, or when volunteers report sick.

To find out more about this rewarding job ring the team coordinator, Barry Williams 905 8816

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100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.