Historic film footage includes Rongopai restoration

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The 1970s restoration of two historic wharenui – Rongopai at Waituhi and Rukupo at Manutuke – will be the headline feature in two screenings of historic film footage of the district next week.

Brought to Gisborne by Historic Places Tairawhiti, the hour-long footage especially selected for the region by Nga Taonga Sound and Vision will screen at the Odeon Theatre.

Historic Places Tairawhiti chairman James Blackburne said the first screening would follow the group’s AGM on Wednesday 18 July.

“As we have already booked that out, we’ll run another session at 8.30pm for the general public.

“The first part of the footage – a short, newly digitised 1912 film – provides a fascinating record of pre-World War 1 life in Gisborne, capturing activities on the streets, transportation and architecture. Part-scenic and part-newsreel, the film includes dramatic footage of horses in a swirling sea at Tuahine Point as men drag equipment from the drays and up the cliffs to charge the lighthouse. The last section shows the wreck of the Star of Canada which sank on 23 June 1912 off Kaiti Beach.”

The Star of Canada’s two-storeyed bridgehouse, which had been removed from the slowly sinking ship, was brought ashore, towed through Gisborne by a steam roller and placed on a section in Childers Road. In 1986, the Gisborne West Rotary Club raised enough money to move it to its current Taruheru River bank site, given a surrounding deck and new museum display space. It currently forms part of Tairawhiti Museum’s maritime museum.

Two films from Max Fry’s personal records cover the effects in Gisborne of the 16 September 1932 Napier earthquake, and a compilation of parades and A&P shows in Gisborne from the 1920s to 1950s.

The half-hour 1978 Te Ohaki o te Po (From Where the Spirit Calls) documents the restoration of Rongopai wharenui at Waituhi and Rukupo at Manutuke. Screened as part of the Te Maori Exhibition, this discusses the importance of wharenui in contemporary Maori society.

The film evening ends with a short film Sensitive to a Smile, about the band Herbs. The group visited Ruatoria in 1987 bringing music and aroha, and leaving with a mini-documentary and this evocative music video.

n As space is limited for this screening, bookings are essential. Please contact Sheridan at hpt-tours@historicplacesaotearoa.org.nz or phone 868 5805. Historic Places Tairawhiti members, free; non-members, $10.