Dead Letters, Great War Stories
Personal experiences of WW1
Using stories, letters and film, Dead Letters, Great War Stories brings to vivid life the personal experiences of the First World War.
Date: Wednesday, 24 April, 2019
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Cost: Free. You don't need to book.
Location: Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon
Domestic censorship in New Zealand 1914 to 1920
Hear from archivist and historian Jared Davidson, who has just published Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-1920 (Otago University Press), revealing the impact of domestic censorship on the lives of radicals, writers, and everyday people during wartime and beyond.
'Haiku' film documentaries about the Great War
Then enjoy a selection of films from Anna Cottrell’s TV series Great War Stories, which reveal moving personal stories in letters and diaries, including some that escaped the censors.
Great War Stories consist of five TV series of short personal stories told through letters and diaries, many held in the ATL, some from whānau.
Among eight ‘haiku’ documentaries are Leonard Hart’s harrowing letter about the horrors of Passchendaele that evaded the censors; and Te Puea’s refusal to send her men to fight ‘white men’s wars’.
Another victim of the State was young Victor Spencer, shot at dawn for desertion in spite of his letter pleading poor mental health.
After reading a family diary Gareth Farr, composer, wrote a cello concerto for three relatives killed on the Western Front. Katherine Mansfield writes movingly about the death of her brother Leslie Beauchamp
About the speakers
An archivist by day and labour historian by night, Jared Davidson is an award-winning writer based in Wellington, New Zealand. Through social biography and history from below, Jared explores the lives of people often overlooked by traditional histories — from working-class radicals of the early twentieth century to prison convicts of the nineteenth.
Anna Cottrell’s been making documentaries for over 25 years. She hunts out people with a good story who face life’s challenges with courage and humour. Examples of this include her documentaries Wahine Disaster, 50 Years On (2018) and The Kiwi the Knight and the Qashqai (2018
Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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38.3% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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61.7% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
💨 Wellington: Is the real summer finally here?
It’s the talk of the town (and every coffee queue): the Wellington "summer" has felt more like a very long, very damp spring! 🌧️ We’ve definitely had our fair share of grey skies and raincoats lately.
In fact, The Post reports that our "pretty average" summer has been tough on the local venues and events that usually thrive under the sun. But don't pack away the sunscreen just yet!
The good news? The next couple of weeks are looking a bit more "settled" (the Wellington word for "not a gale-force downpour"). With autumn officially here, now is the time to squeeze every last drop out of the season! ☀️
Any local hidden spots or activities you’d recommend for a calm Wellington day? Drop them in the comments! 👇
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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