Forming our Trust

Author: Andy Fenton, Chairperson and Trustee

A few years ago, a wise librarian suggested that I should form a foundation or trust to further the work I was doing to preserve local history from communities across Aotearoa and facilitate community engagement –subjects I am incredibly passionate about. My interest was further fuelled by serving on a school’s board of trustees and several cultural heritage professional associations and governing boards.

Thanks to some fantastic inspiration and hard mahi from fellow Trust members and supporters we formed The Preserving Local History and Educational Trust, Te Pupuri I Nga Hitori o Te Rohe Trust. Sage advice and a modest grant from Manatū Taonga, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, gave us the impetus and confidence we needed. Our primary goal is to preserve Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural heritage and taonga. We believe our mahi can provide lasting benefits for communities and help advance education, while ultimately supporting the views and expectations of tangata whenua.

The introduction of the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories in our school curriculum means that free and easy access to heritage resources, like community newspapers, is essential. Much of Aotearoa’s history is documented in local community newspapers. They contain so much rich content about everyday New Zealanders: revealing the people, places, events, organisations, businesses, societies, iwi, and hapu that make up a village, small town, rohe, or region.

The Trust has begun to digitise and upload 200,000 pages of community newspapers from Ohakune, Taupō, and Blenheim using the Lottery, Environment, and Heritage funding. Seeking to get underway with Phase Two of this initiative, our Trust has just submitted a proposal, Preserving Local Histories for Our Tamariki: Mass Digitisation of Historical Community Newspapers, to the Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund. This project aims to digitise a quarter of a million historical newspaper pages (published between 1840 to 2000) that are at risk of loss or decay, and make these available to the public. It will ensure the stories and histories of diverse communities across Aotearoa New Zealand are preserved for current and future generations.

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