New Zealand Heritage Sites

Young Nick’s Head, a headland in the Gisborne region, has recently featured in the news.

How much do you know about the history of Young Nick’s Head? How many important heritage sites are you living around the corner from, but don’t know about?

This TKI Hot Topic looks at significant sites around New Zealand, and challenges you to become an active participant in recording and investigating our country’s heritage.

Young Nick’s Head

Te Kuri A Paoa/Young Nick's Head is named in honour of two first sightings of New Zealand by early explorers – Paoa, the captain of the Horouta waka, who named the headland after his dog, and Nicholas Young – the surgeon's son on Captain Cook's ship the Endeavour, who first sighted the coast of New Zealand in 1769 from the masthead of the ship.

There are many significant landmarks throughout New Zealand to investigate. Have a look at some of the sites listed below, or approach your local museum or tourist centre to find out about historic sites near you. Some sites may offer a guide, who will be able to talk you through the events and people who have made the site a landmark.

Recording New Zealand’s Heritage

Once you have found out about a place and its people, why not get your students to record their knowledge for future generations to read?

Heritage is vital to preserve. It puts us in touch with our past as individuals and as a country, shows us the traditions that have shaped us into the country and people we are today, keeps the memories of our forebears and their achievements alive, and acts as an important touchstone to show us how far we have come.

Online projects such as Living Heritage are enabling students to record New Zealand’s history themselves. Students decide on a project, conduct their own research, and put the finished product together by publishing it online. Living Heritage encourages students to investigate and publish research on both New Zealand’s past and its present day – recognising that the events of today will be heritage in fifty years’ time.

You are able to find out more about Living Heritage in Volume 81 Number 15 of the New Zealand Education Gazette: http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/articles/show_articles.cgi?id=6248

Sign up your school and project ideas today!

New Zealand Historic Places Trust
This is the website of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Pouhere Taonga, the leading agency for the protection of sites and buildings in New Zealand that are of historic and cultural significance to its peoples. It includes a searchable register of historic places, historic areas, wahi tapu, and areas of wahi tapu, an education section, and information about places to visit.
http://www.historic.org.nz
http://www.historic.org.nz/places2visit/places2visit_index.html

New Zealand Historical Association
The New Zealand Historical Association (NZHA) aims to promote historical study, teaching, and research. This website contains information about the association and its activities, including conferences, and links to related sites. The NZHA works with the New Zealand History Teachers' Association to promote the study of history in secondary schools.
http://www.rsnz.govt.nz/clan/historians

Living Heritage
Living Heritage is a project that encourages schools to create a website that shares and preserves the stories of their community, whanau, and friends. This site enables students to record New Zealand history online for current and future generations to discover. Register your school and project, then set to work!
http://www.livingheritage.org.nz

Living Heritage: The Pilot's Cottage – by Worser Bay School
Worser Bay School in Wellington has created a website about an historic house, the Pilot's Cottage, as part of the Living Heritage initiative. This is where the first ships' pilots in Wellington lived when Worser Bay was a port in the late 1800s. The website discovers the people who lived there then and now, and includes quizzes and interviews.
http://www.livingheritage.govt.nz/worser_bay/index.html

Christchurch City Council
This site features information about Canterbury history – people, places, events, and geneology. Use this site to learn about the significance of a number of places and landmarks.
http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Heritage
http://library.christchurch.org.nz/TiKoukaWhenua/AZIndex.asp

Historic Auckland
This is the website of the Auckland branch of the Historic Places Trust, Pouhere Taonga, which is dedicated to promoting Auckland's heritage. Students can explore the region's history, find places to visit, learn how the Trust works to preserve the past, and find links to related websites.
http://www.historicauckland.org.nz

Māori Sites around Wellington – Heretaunga School
Heretaunga School has created this website, which lists historic Māori sites around the Wellington region. The places are listed, accompanied by information about their significance.
http://www.heretaunga.school.nz/dept/history/WELLINGT/maori02.htm#Raurimu

Historic Graves and Monuments
This Te Manatu Taonga (Ministry of Culture and Heritage) site includes a list of historic graves and monuments in New Zealand. It includes information on the William Massey, Richard Seddon, and Michael Joseph Savage memorials, and biographical details on these New Zealanders.
http://www.mch.govt.nz/History/HPU/gravmon.htm

Hist/1/1 and Hist/1/2 - L version 2
This assessment material entitled Magic Minutes: Our Community Yesterday, relates to New Zealand history achievement standards 1.1, carrying out an historical investigation, and 1.2, communicate historical ideas. It involves students conducting research into a particular building, monument, or other structure in the local community and presenting results as a taped radio broadcast.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ncea/hist1_1L2Lv2_22june01.doc

Taranaki (Egmont), New Zealand
This site contains historical and geological information about one of New Zealand's volcanoes, Taranaki (Egmont).
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_egmont.html

Please note: These links were valid when this page was posted. However the Web is very volatile, and TKI has no control over outside websites. Please let us know if you find a broken link or if you have an update for a link. Te Kete Ipurangi recommends that teachers view all websites we link to before using them with students.

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