Palmy’s Te Manawa seeking contributions for Covid-19 Collections

Heritage curator Karis Evans with a Covid-19 self-portrait by Kirsty Porter.

Palmerston North’s Te Manawa Museum is inviting the community to help build a collection of 19 objects telling the story of life in lockdown.

From now until October 1, people in Manawatū are being asked to consider which items illustrate the pivotal moments and personal experiences that shaped their lives during 2020, 2021, and the subsequent “traffic light” era.

These items can be offered to Te Manawa to help create the “Covid-19″ collection, a pandemic-themed time capsule. The objects will help future Te Manawa visitors understand how the daily lives of people in Manawatū were impacted by a global pandemic.

Te Manawa’s website has an online platform where the community can submit their Covid-19 items for consideration. These objects can be from any time period, by any maker, purchased in Palmerston North or ordered online, so long as each one tells a special story about an experience during the pandemic.

Items such as a teddy bear that was placed in the living room window for children to discover on their neighbourhood walk, homemade masks, or the bottle of shampoo from a managed isolation hotel would all be appropriate.

The brief is open. If an item is significant to their personal Covid-19 experience, Te Manawa encourages people to consider offering it to the collection.

Karis Evans, Heritage Curator at Te Manawa, said the collection is important.

“The Covid-19 pandemic was a defining period in global history, but we each experienced it differently. In every home, every bubble, the pandemic played out in a very particular way that simply could not be captured by daily press briefings or national statistics.”

“We want to capture these unique experiences and ensure the stories we tell at the Museum reflect our community. In the future, the Covid-19 collection will serve as a valuable resource for future generations to understand that the pandemic was not just about a virus, but a wholesale change in the way we all lived.”

All objects offered for donation will go through an approval process. Submissions will be accepted until October 1 and retained until all entries have been assessed.

Objects must be gifted to the collection – Te Manawa cannot offer any compensation.

More information is available from temanawa.co.nz/covid-collection or by contacting Te Manawa directly.