Bizarre objects jostle with extremely significant ones
in the almost 100 kilometres of holdings in Archives New Zealand, the official
guardian of the record of government. The thousands of boxes contain all sorts
of treasures and secrets, dating from our earliest days of settlement right
through to today.
Intriguing items held include early historical
artefacts, such as a rare letter written by Captain Cook, more than one Treaty
of Waitangi sheet and the battle-worn flag of the warrior prophet Te Kooti;
poignant letters written to David Lange from New Zealand children and a letter
from Florence Nightingale to a New Zealand nurse; records of secret weapons; exotic
gifts to our Prime Ministers; grisly exhibits from murder trials; even
sightings of UFOs.
Now the story of these objects is gathered together
for the first time in compelling book form. Secrets & Treasures tells
the story of New Zealand
and New Zealanders — through the things that mattered to us and were important
enough to be stored and kept for posterity.
Detailing a cornucopia of unexpected objects, curious
ephemera and the slightly bizarre, Secrets & Treasures is New
Zealand’s story — at times familiar, such as the Mt Erebus crash, for which
cockpit voice recordings are held, at other times unfamiliar, even state
secrets, like the ‘Tsunami bomb’. There are objects which tell a light-hearted
story, including the one-off law passed to protect the dolphin Pelorus Jack,
and those which capture significant moments in New Zealand society, such as the
huge scroll of the petition calling for women’s suffrage.
This book delves into the archives to tell a very
human story of New Zealand ,
a story that involves love, death, war, immigration, disaster, protest,
defiance, censorship and hokey pokey.
About the author
Ray Waru has been involved in the television and
radio industries for more than 30 years. He joined Television New Zealand in 1977 and directed and produced such local
favourites as Fair Go and Country Calendar. In 1980 he
established the first dedicated Maori television production unit in TVNZ which
created a stream of primetime Maori and Pacifica
series and documentaries. In 1989 he was appointed chief executive of the
Aotearoa Maori Radio Trust and established a network of Maori radio stations throughout the
country. In recent years he has produced documentary projects on many subjects
and worked with a diverse range of people including Alan Duff and Kiri Te
Kanawa. In 2000, Waru co-produced the six-part history documentary series Our
People, Our Century, which won Best Factual Series at the New Zealand
Television Awards and in 2005 made the 13-part history of New Zealand , Frontier
of Dreams, which won awards at the Houston International Film Festival and
the US International Film and Video Festival.
This is his first book.
Secrets & Treasures
Ray Waru
RRP: $59.00
Ranmdom House NZ
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