From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection
The mix of mirth and indignation is a strange cocktail. My first taste was at hearing my childhood years described as the late 1900s. For the briefest of moments, my mind's eye overshot that location by several decades, scrolling from memory into imagination and then, with bewilderment, back again. The 1980s after all was only about 20 years ago, surely?
This next collection for some people risks evoking a similar
response. The people involved are neither ancient nor of the colonial era, in
fact, some of them (some of you), are still alive.
It begins as a collaboration (in the closing years of the
1900s), between Tauranga Library archivist Jinty Rorke (1942-2014), journalist
and author Max Avery (Living History Productions), veteran Bay of Plenty Times journalist Glen
Pettit and videographer Ross Brown (Vision Media). The collaboration resulted
in at least forty fascinating interviews with local personalities whose memory
and contribution stretched back much of the 20th Century. The interviews are in two audio-visual
collections, a peculiarity of archivists who like to arrange things by donation
rather than as a project or by format. The second collection I will look at in a future post, along with the journey the interviews took from analogue to digital.
Jinty Rorke (and Jill Best), from the Lee Switzer Photographic Collection, 6 December 2007
The first collection is AV 21-002: the Jinty Rorke Collection. You can locate them on Pae Korokī by clicking the "Audio Visual" menu and following your nose.
These include:
- D.H. Duff Maxwell (1903-1997) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1989) – coming soon
- Vi Simons (1900-2001) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1990)
- Capt D. Munro (1904-1995) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1990)
- R.A. (Bob) Owens (1921-1999) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1996)
- Alan Bellamy (1923-2004) interviewedby Jinty Rorke (1997)
- Nora Prior née Fenn interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1997)
- Thelma Smith (1911-2013) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1997)
- Lyn Harpham (née Christian) (1919-2011) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1997)
- Rev Wynnton Poole (1908-2005) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1997)
- Arthur Dagley (1919-1998) interviewedby Jinty Rorke (1997)
- V. Bruce Cunningham (1919- ) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1997)
- N.R. (Rex) White (1919- ) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1997)
- Peter and May Densem interviewedby Jinty Rorke (1997)
- A. (Alf) H. Rendell (1917-2019) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Lionel Lees (1906-1998) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Peter Densem (1917-2019) interviewedby Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Dr Joy Drayton (1916-2012) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Capt. S.R. (Rollo) Davis interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- J. H. (Harry) Graham (1907-2003) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Patrick and Nita McBrearty interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Nan Garrity and Gipsy Mackenzie (née Norris) interviewed by Jinty Rorke (1998)
- Kate Jones Madill interviewed by Jinty Rorke (2003) – not viewable
- Glenn Pettit interviewed by Jinty Rorke (2003)
AV 21-002 also includes a documentary on the Ōmanawa Falls power station, commissioned by the Tauranga District Libraries in 1998. The documentary is researched, filmed, and produced by Max C. Avery with Jinty Rorke narrating.
You can locate AV21-002 on the library’s heritage platform, Pae Korokī, under "Audio Visual", or by clicking here.
For more information about other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz
Written by Harley Couper, Heritage Specialist at Tauranga City Library.
