Our reading rooms are closing for a 2-day all staff wānanga

20 June 2023

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha o ngā hau e whā, tēnā koutou katoa.

Nā te kaha o tātou i uru ai ki te kaupapa o Te Rua Mahara nei, ka whai anō mātou i te wā, ka hui tahi ai tātou, whakarite ai hoki i ō tātou ara tika i tēnei hui whakahirahira. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, erangi he toa takim.

Following the recent appointment of Anahera Morehu as permanent Poumaanaki Chief Archivist, the Archives New Zealand Leadership Team (ALT)—with the support of Te Haumi, Enterprise Partnerships Branch of Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs—will formally welcome Anahera with a pōwhiri on Monday, 3 July in Wellington.

The pōwhiri for the Poumanaaki Chief Archivist will begin a 2-day all-of-Archives wānanga. Heading into Matariki, and with ALT business planning set, the wānanga is an opportunity to collectively discuss our long-standing strategy, vision and mission heading into a new year. This is the first time Archives has held a national wānanga for staff to meet kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face to face).

The wānanga—He waka eke noa tātou – All of Archives wānanga—will reaffirm and explore opportunities for the ongoing care, management and preservation of our holdings and how we can better meet the needs of users.

So we can fully explore these opportunities, our reading rooms in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin will be closed on 3 and 4 July. Our Auckland reading room is already temporarily closed for building works to be carried out. The 2-day closure also includes Government Loans services. We acknowledge that there is no perfect time for users, but the long-term gain for the organisation is necessary. We encourage you to use Collections search to look for records of interest, and the Ask an Archivist service will still be available to use during this time. You can also contact us via email if you need us to assist you with any queries.

We sincerely apologise for the disruption and inconvenience that this closure may cause, particularly for researchers and their mahi. We will endeavour to meet your online requests as quickly and efficiently as we can from Wednesday 5 July, along with returning to regular reading room hours for Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin this same day.

For any feedback and correspondence you may wish to share with our Leadership Team, please email the office of the Chief Archivist, and we will respond as soon as we can.

Kia whai te iti kahurangi, ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei, nō reira, he waka eke noa tātou!

Nāku iti noa nā,

Archives Leadership Team