Our Mission
The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust (Te Pupuri I Nga Hitori o Te Rohe Trust) wishes to preserve the stories that have helped to shape our communities and our nation, and to make these accessible to New Zealanders both at home and abroad.
We have commenced a multi-stage, multi-year project that seeks to preserve Aotearoa New Zealand’s written history for our tamariki and increase access to New Zealand’s cultural history.
Urgent preservation required
Newspapers are comprehensive records that capture local events, stories and knowledge all about the tāngata, businesses, clubs, and organisations that build a community. Preserving a community’s history is crucial to understanding who we are, and our tūrangawaewae.
A significant number of these newspapers are stored in poor conditions, often looked after by volunteer community groups. They are fragile documents, not easily accessed by the public and are deteriorating year-on-year.
Without urgent preservation these stories will be missing from our nation’s kōrero.
The need has been identified within the library sector, community sector, by individuals, at the Government level and backed by use statistics for newspapers that have already been digitised via the National Library’s Papers Past – one of our country’s most researched databases/websites.
The Project
The Trust’s current project is called ‘Your Stories - preserving local histories for our tamariki’ and its overarching goal is to digitise, and make available, all historical newspapers (from 1840 to 2000) that are at risk of loss or decay. This will ensure that the stories and histories from diverse communities right across urban and rural New Zealand are preserved for current and future generations.
“Digitised copies of our papers will be a great help for us and the community. Most of this information is not available anywhere else.”
— Robert Milne, Editor of the Ruapehu Bulletin.
The Outcome
The Trust intends to make the digitised and preserved newspapers available online through our Recollect site. This site provides immediate access to newspapers digitised by the Trust while we wait for the images to be ingested into the National Digital Heritage Archive and eventually uploaded to Papers Past. Anyone with access to the internet will be able to view the digital images of the newspapers, 24/7 (rights permitting).
Across Aotearoa many public libraries, archives, and museums offer free internet services.
Digitised Newspapers
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The Marlborough Express
1921-1943
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The Ruapehu Bulletin
1987-2000
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The Taupō Times
1958-1990
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The Otago Witness Illustrated Supplements
1900-1915
Would you like the Trust to digitise your community’s newspaper?
We are interested in historical newspapers that are at risk of loss or decay. Titles that are already preserved on microfilm or present on Papers Past will not be considered at this time. If you hold newspapers that are not known about (you can check this in the National Library's catalogue: https://natlib.govt.nz/) or are not widely held, the Trust is interested in learning more about your collection. Please let us know at preservinglocalhistory@gmail.com.
How can you show your support?
As a charitable trust, we require your support to continue to fulfil our important mahi. Show your support for The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust by making a donation, taking the time to advocate for our project, or telling us about hard-to-find newspapers.
Our Strategic Partners
We express our gratitude and thanks to The National Library of New Zealand and NZMS for their contribution and support.
