Heritage of Rangitikei celebrated

Volunteer Rose Hunt helps out at the Bulls Museum Photo/Stuart Munro

Bulls, Marton, Hunterville, Mangaweka and Taihape Museums opened their doors last weekend to celebrate the Rangitikei district's heritage.

Bulls Museum is open every day, and had just installed its latest exhibition, the story of knitting Knit One Purl One, in time for the heritage opening.

Museum secretary Helen Cooper said organisers had "yarn bombed" the town to highlight the exhibition which will run until September.

They had just taken down the Chris Amon exhibition, and when she spoke to the former Formula One driver, he had said he had received a lot of feedback from people overseas who had seen it when they passed through his home town.

"We also received a letter from Sir Jackie Stewart about the exhibition."

Rangitikei Heritage Group chairman Richard Aslett said a group of volunteers from the museums developed projects to benefit all and the theme for the weekend was a railway and transport one.

Past projects included developing heritage inventories, a heritage brochure, Rangitikei Weekend and volunteers handbooks. The group also provides support structure, by which museums can share knowledge and experiences with one another.

"The group has a range of fantastic volunteers who devote a large amount of time to developing heritage resources within the district."

Mr Aslett said they were currently working on a World War I two-hour DVD project telling the stories of the soldiers, nurses and horses from around the district who served in the war. "The stories are almost complete and will be narrated over the coming few months."