March 08, 2021
History revealed in taonga
A new television show is challenging the way people think about taonga.
National Treasures is a search for items that may be valuable not because of the price placed on them in the market but because of the emotions and stories they unlock.
The first episode last night included items such as the floorboards at Seddon – now Western Springs High School – used to hide Pasifika students from raids by police and immigration officials during the dawn raids of the 1970s, to a football treasured because of its connection to one of the victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks.
Co-presenter Stacey Morrison says the episode proved an emotional roller coaster, especially the story about a boy’s memories of the 1953 Tangiwai Disaster when a passenger train was swept into the Whangaehu River.
"He wrote a song about the pillows of the dead because that's what he remembered, the pillows of the dead came down the river. It was something he struggled with his whole life. So when you have items, people really treasure these measures but they are hard for them to talk about so you try to afford them the respect they deserve. Ngā kōrero katoa ka puta," she says.
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