Ngako: A Collection of Auckland's Heritage

Ngako: The Collections Talk is a documentary film series that explores taonga held in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections and Auckland Council Archives.

We journey with narrators who illustrate how documentary heritage collections help us understand our past, our present and show us potential paths into our future.

Who knew that Rangitoto once had a thriving honey industry linked to the largest Pōhutukawa forest in the world?

In this episode, we learn from maps, photos, newspapers, diaries, and minute books about the development of extractive industries and subsequent efforts for conservation on Tāmaki Makaurau’s iconic Rangitoto Island.

Narrated by heritage librarian Elspeth Orwin and archivist Vicky McCulloch.

Jack Diamond’s curiosity for the changing world around him led to a lifelong passion for documenting the people, landscape, and extractive industries of West Auckland.

In this episode, heritage archivist Erica O’Flaherty illustrates the depth and breadth of his work through his research notes, maps, journals, and photos which led to the J.T Diamond collection being inscribed on the UNESCO Aotearoa NZ Memory of the World Register.

In this episode we delve into two significant photographic collections, Rykenberg Photography and the 1990 Project, to show how street photography can help us examine social history.

Through a selection of a few favourite photos, heritage collections librarian Renée Orr and NZ Fashion Museum’s Doris de Pont look at the fashion landscapes of central city Auckland in the 1960s and 1990s, with an additional nod to the richness of local magazines of the time.

What does it mean to have posters (pepa) printed in Rarotonga in the 1840s in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections?

This episode explores the story behind each pepa and what we can learn today about the history of people and place at the time of the arrival of the printing press in Rarotonga.

I te tau 1863 ka tuhituhi atu a Te Whiwhi-o-te-rangi ki tōna whānaunga a Tamihana Te Rauparaha nō te tāone horo pūkahakaha atu rā o Ākarana – Ko Tāmaki Makaurau.

Ka tūhura tēnei whakaaturanga i te ngako o te reta nei me ngā kīnaki i whaihua mai i ngā kitenga o ngā karu o Te Whiwhi i taua nei wā rā.

Ka whaikorokī i a Rapata Eruera, ko te Pou Whakarae Māori - Taonga Tuku Iho.

In 1863 Te Whiwhi-o-te-Rangi wrote to his whanaunga Tamihana Te Rauparaha from the fast-establishing city of Auckland - Tāmaki Makaurau. The episode explores the content and context of this reta Māori, and the relationships and significance of Te Whiwhi’s observations of this time.

Narrated in te reo Māori by Robert Eruera - Pou Whakarae Māori – Taonga Tuku Iho.

Tōkia tō kiri i te pūmaumaharatanga - Immerse oneself in remembrance