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Connections//

Stories of Taranaki
Published by Puke Ariki in association with Westgate Transport
Reviewed by Peter Watt (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Puke Ariki is a tribute to generations of Taranaki people who have seen historical value in everyday things.

It grew mainly out of a need to better house and display the old Taranaki Museum's vast collection of objects. A little over a year on from the museum/library/information centre's opening, the old museum is fading fast in the memory.

Puke Ariki is fortunate to have retained its outstanding Taranaki Museum personnel – and brought in new blood – to continue to grow the collection and to maintain it to the highest standards.

The new museum is a genuine showcase for our history, and now it has extended into publishing with a book called Connections. It demonstrates just how far we have come in a short time, for Connections is a book that could not have been produced pre Puke Ariki. It would have been paradoxical to show in book form artefacts we could never see because of the lack of space in the museum proper; now it makes sense.

And a new, modern home has brought confidence and boldness to the management of Taranaki's historical collection. If you've got it, flaunt it, might be the new museum mantra.

Earlier this year Te Papa published Nga Taonga, a monstrous book highlighting more than 400 objects from its collection. Puke Ariki has taken a different tack with Connections, a book that puts a limited number of objects in a social context, linking them to a variety of people in the Taranaki region.

The result is a triumph. By humanising the collection in this way, Connections defies those who see nothing in a museum but dusty, irrelevant relics.

Connections starts with 36 individuals – some household names, others not well known at all. In some cases the objects came first and "chose" the people, in others the person was chosen first and they selected the item they connected with. Their heartfelt stories are told briefly and well by Wellington writer Sarah Brown to convey the necessary information, which then leaves the field clear for the photography.

Where Connections oozes quality – the design work by Wellington-based Cato Partners is superb – it is in the photography of John Crawford that the book moves to a higher level.

Crawford has long been one of Taranaki's best and most successful photographers and this project is obviously close to his heart – "a photographer's dream". "Taranaki is more than a place, it's an attitude and a lifestyle, and I've tried to reflect that in my work," he says in the book. Crawford has done Taranaki proud.

There is humour – Westgate operations manager and harbourmaster Ray Barlow with stuffed albatross and Colin's cat; nostalgia – actress and director Katie Wolfe with family connections galore, conveyed in a crate of Western soft drinks outside the Wai-iti Beach store; spirituality – a contemplative Te Atiawa kaumatua Maihengia (Peter) White with Poutama Whiria, the sacred adze of the Tokomaru waka.

Taking the subject and object out into the landscape, Crawford celebrates the beauty, the grandeur and the diversity of Taranaki. Often there is the hilariously quirky juxtaposition – Taranaki Regional Council general manager Basil Chamberlain seated midstream in a leopard-skin love chair, the water threatening to fill his Red Bands. And always there is the sense of pride in the person's connection to this place's history.
I have a small question mark over some of the people in the book – just a hint of vested interests dominating or debts being repaid, a suggestion strongly rejected by Puke Ariki managers – but in almost every case their inclusion stands on its merits.

There is a shared sense of belonging conveyed in Crawford's pictures and Brown's writing, from Tohe (Tom) Pakanga Ngatai, eldest living descendant of Titokowaru, to Leo Carrington, descendant of the pioneer surveying Carrington brothers. And here is perhaps the most tantalising part of the whole book – mention of Frederic Alonzo Carrington's journal, which includes a section that has long been sealed at the request of members of his family. Surely there is a story here that must someday be told.

Connections dispels any notion that this somewhat isolated region has anything to feel inferior about. Our stories are as vivid as any in New Zealand, our multicultural roots are as deep, our community health as strong.
Through the people in this book, we are inspired to think of our own connections with the past, and to do justice to those who have gone before.

Brian Chong, on his grandfather, the legendary Chew Chong: "Early Taranaki must have offered so many opportunities to entrepreneurs like my grandfather. He was an astonishing businessman, with the vision and energy to act on the possibilities that came his way – and to transform them into Taranaki success stories. He's an enduring inspiration: I wish I'd been able to meet him."

The last word goes to former Governor-General and Archbishop of New Zealand Sir Paul Reeves. Sir Paul was born in Wellington and did not "rediscover" his Maori heritage until he reached manhood. He lived for a time at Okato as the local vicar, eventually coming to fully appreciate his sense of belonging, both with Te Atiawa and the Taranaki region.
"The people of Taranaki have supported me in so many ways; I have an immense spiritual connection to them and their place ... They are my people, and Taranaki is my home."