Tauranga. Photo / Supplied
The future of a Tauranga museum — or a version of it — could lie in plans to establish a heritage centre in the city.
The proposal for the Western Bay of Plenty Heritage Education Centre was submitted to Tauranga City Council by Taonga Tū Heritage Bay of Plenty. The group sought funding to explore the opportunity to partner with a developer and lease a site in the CBD, likely to be accessed from The Strand.
Taonga Tū was now seeking input from the wider community to establish what people most wanted in a potential future heritage centre or museum.
Council general manager of community services Gareth Wallis said there was a range of submissions through this year's Long-term Plan (LTP) advocating for a museum or heritage centre to be built. This prompted the creation of a $150,000 Heritage Projects fund to help such opportunities be investigated, he said.
Taonga Tū was given $28,000 for a feasibility study and to engage experienced heritage design consultants.
The council was also exploring options as part of its future council space on Willow St.
"Based on the significant positive feedback received during the LTP process, a museum/heritage/learning centre will be considered as part of the master planning of the civic precinct, and the upcoming review of the City Centre Strategy and Action Plan," Wallis said.
In addition to the Heritage Projects fund, council commissioners approved a $100,000 budget to increase community access to - and engagement with - Tauranga's existing heritage collection.
The collection is made up of 30,000 items stored in a secure Mount Maunganui site and maintained by two curators. It includes a 15th-century Tata (canoe bailer) and the 13-tonne Rena anchor.
Wallis said the budget would enable staff to carry out plans to bring the collection "closer to the community", with temporary exhibits and events during the coming year and through loans of items to local schools.
As part of the Long-term Plan, $125,000 was allocated to investigate a proposed historic and cultural centre at Gate Pā's Pukehinahina Reserve.
Taonga Tū Trust chairman Bruce Farthing said it was exciting to be supported by the city's commissioners and granted the funding for the proposed heritage centre's business case.
"This contemporary high-spec centre will include a focus on the new school history curriculum and involve a wide range of local educators, advocates and management teams. Student, teacher and community feedback to date has been outstanding – it's fantastic to see this level of support by the Council for our youth and future generations," he said.
It was hoped the strategy could be used as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum.
Farthing confirmed Taonga Tū have been "offered an opportunity to work closely with a prominent Tauranga developer and with renowned New Zealand and international spatial designers and heritage consultants towards making this centre a reality for our region".
The group was also seeking feedback via an online survey "to develop a connected, contemporary and independent heritage strategy ... for the people, by the people".
Farthing said the region's rich heritage spanned as far back as the first waka arriving from Polynesia in the 13th century.
"The region was deeply impacted by inter-tribal warfare during the Musket Wars from 1807 through 1840, the rise of Christianity from 1838 on the site of what was once Ōtamataha Pā (now The Elms, Te Papa Tauranga), and on through the Battles of Pukehinahina (Gate Pā) and Te Ranga and culminating in the land confiscations of the late 1860s and 70s.
"We have a duty to recognise and preserve these pivotal moments that have evolved side by side with our European settlements and which have become part of our shared history. We need to learn from them and understand the role each plays in shaping future generations."
Tauranga historian and author Debbie McCauley said "understanding our shared history will help us develop an interesting city rich with its own unique flavour".
"The rise of heritage tourism has seen people increasingly connecting with worldwide heritage sites and stories, be that physically or digitally.
"While we can't be proud of all our local history, we have the opportunity through the heritage strategy to be proud of the way those diverse stories and differing perspectives are acknowledged and presented to the rest of the world."
- The Western Bay of Plenty has one of the highest densities of recorded archaeological sites in the country.
- 6675 archaeological sites are recorded in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty, as of September 2021, of which 98 per cent represent pre-colonial (pre-1865) Māori occupation. This represents more than nine per cent of the national total.
- The first European to sail past, somehow missing both entrances into the harbour, was Capt. James Cook and his crew in the Endeavour on November 2, 1769.
- Tauranga once boasted the second largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere, which housed all local and national government departments. In 1902 this burnt down, along with all official records of early Tauranga.
- Tauranga's National Jazz Festival was first held on January 13, 1963, and is the longest running event of its kind in the southern hemisphere and one of the oldest in the world.
- Tauranga Boys' College was the first secondary school in the New Zealand to have a guidance counsellor. Tauranga Girls' College was the second. Joy Drayton, Principal of Tauranga Girls' College from 1959 until about 1981, added te reo Māori to the college curriculum, the first state school in New Zealand to do so.
- Completed in 1847, the Elms Mission House is now one of the oldest and finest examples of late-Georgian Architecture in the country.
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