Short Reads

One of the Samoan measina held in the collections of Tamaki Paenga Hira’s research library is the mission magazine ‘O le Sulu Samoa’, published to highlight London Missionary Society activities and community news. Beginning in 1839, this magazine continues to be published today by the Ekalesia Fa’apotopotoga Kerisiano Samoa (the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa). The considerable run provides a rich resource for researchers, and a compelling narrative of Samoa’s historical journey.

A little background
On August 24, 1830, John Williams, a minister with the Congregationalist London Missionary Society, landed at Sapapali’i village along the coast of Savaii, in search of Malietoa Vaiinupo, a paramount chief of Samoa. Upon meeting Malietoa at a large gathering in Sapapali'i, the LMS mission was accepted and grew rapidly throughout the Samoan Islands. The Church established itself at Maluapapa (now known as Malua), twenty kilometres west of Apia. Maluapapa quickly became the centre of Congregationalist activity for the Pacific, particularly after the establishment of Malua Theological College in 1844 by the Reverends George Turner and Charles Hardie.

By 1839 the Mission had started publishing ‘O le Sulu Samoa’ on their printing press at Malua. This printing press had been established with the express aim of publishing material in Samoan to aid the spread of the Gospel and conversion of the Samoan community to the Christianity of the Congregational Church. Over the many years of publication, a wide range of material was translated into Samoan and published in the Sulu Samoa, including the stories of ‘Tusitala’ or Robert Louis Stevenson.

A few libraries across Australia and New Zealand have issues of ‘O le Sulu Samoa’, but no library has a complete run of the 106 years of publication. Tamaki Paenga Hira holds a run of issues from 1902 to 1919 and then a few issues donated by the Reverend Robert Challis, the beloved senior minister of the Pacific Island Congregational Church in Auckland, from the early 1950s.

By the 1900s, in the issues held at Tamaki Paenga Hira, each magazine includes local community news alongside news of events in the wider Pacific area. Births, deaths and marriages in colonial families are noted; families such as Ah Sue, Armstrong, Betham, Carruthers, Churchward, Conradt, Gladding, Hannemann, Harman, Holzhauzen, Krüger, Laban, Nelson, Patterson, Rasmussen, Riedel, Roberts, Schmidt, Skelton, Tattersall, Traub, von Tyszka, Wendt and Wuelfingen.

Something very extraordinary happened in 1938. A woman by the name of Monica "Mona" Leydon (1915-2002) won New Zealand a bronze medal in the 440 yards freestyle at the third British Empire Games, held in Sydney. Her race was just 3 3/5 seconds shy of the world record. But what was it about her win that made it so significant?

Just seven years prior, Mona was unable to walk without the aid of a walking stick. Afflicted with polio since childhood, Mona had fought with paralysis her whole life. She wore callipers to assist her with walking and went through many surgeries to treat her affected left leg. Despite these challenges, Mona became the holder of 13 national championship titles from 1933 to 1938. Her 1938 win at the British Empire Games saw her become a national celebrity. The Evening Star called her “an object lesson to those who would succeed at the sport … the greatest all-round woman swimmer New Zealand has developed,” and she was praised by international commentators.

Mona’s condition was not merely an obstacle for her to overcome, but a part of her journey towards becoming a swimming champion. Following her doctor recommending it to her mother, Mona began swimming as a child to strengthen her muscles. Mona's mother ran the Wellesley Private Hotel on the corner of Wellesley and Hobson Street in Central Auckland. From here, Mona would take a short walk down to the Tepid Baths, on Customs Street West, where she would complete as many as 80 laps a day in training. A fiercely determined athlete, Mona insisted on a short training session even on competition days.

The black silk swimsuit worn by Mona in her bronze medal performance at the 1938 British Empire Games has recently been acquired by Tāmaki Paenga Hira, along with her medal, her blazer and other objects associated with her national swimming career.

Eid al Fitr, or the Festival of Breaking the Fast, is when Muslims around Aotearoa and the world celebrate the end of Ramadan, the month of dawn-to-sunset fasting. The Ramadan festival honours the revealing of the Qu’ran to the prophet Muhammad.

In the Museum’s collections, we hold this leather satchel and unbound Qu’ran, with handwritten calligraphic and illustrated pages in black, red, and yellow. This innovative style of Qu’ran is commonly associated with the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria, designed with accompanying satchel (gafaka in Hausa language) for ease when travelling. The lack of binding means that the elaborately decorated pages can be studied individually, and also shared with others for memorising. Still made today by calligrapher scholars, this Qu’ran is an early 20th Century example of the manuscript culture of North East Nigeria in Muslim Africa. A description of the contemporary making of this type of manuscript is detailed in The Arts and Crafts of Literacy: Islamic Manuscript Cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa (2017).

This particular Qu’ran was donated to the Museum in 1928 by J R Adams-Wilkes, a New Zealander who worked as a colonial administrator in Nigeria. If you have any information about the history of this type of Qu’ran, we’d love to hear from you.

Mary Colclough, or "Polly Plum", was at the forefront of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand. She attracted large audiences in Auckland, Thames, Ngāruawāhia and Hamilton at a time when public speaking by women was not common (boats were laid on from the North Shore for her second Auckland lecture). Under her nom de plume "Polly Plum" she occupied many column inches squaring up to her numerous dissenters. Responding to a Letter to the Editor in 1871, Mary summed up her demands for all women succintly as “the right, as thinking, reasoning beings, to decide for themselves what is best for their own happiness. If they were satisfied with man's decision, this agitation for change would not be.”

Born in London in 1836, Mary trained as a teacher before coming to New Zealand in 1859, where she married in 1861. Her husband died young so Mary continued working and raised her two children independently. She became a household name in the 1870s as a champion for women’s rights to an education, their own careers, guardianship of their children and the vote. She also advocated for temperance as well as improved treatment of prostitutes and women prisoners.

Mary crossed the Tasman in 1874 where she continued her support for women’s causes. She returned to New Zealand and teaching in 1876 in time to witness the passing of the Married Women’s Property Act in 1884, but unfortunately did not live to see women in New Zealand receive the vote. She died in 1885, aged forty-nine, following a serious accident.

Her tireless advocacy is celebrated by this folding chair, inscribed with "M C" for Mary Colclough, "WCTU" for the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and "Polly Plum", along with the dedication "In memory of one who loved to serve".

With the sighting of the new crescent moon, Muslims around Aotearoa and the world have been celebrating Eid al Fitr, or the Festival of Breaking the Fast. Eid al Fitr celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the lunar month in which the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammed.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ramadan observances are being conducted differently this year, however as we emerge from lockdown, the Ramadan message of charity, empathy and compassion is one we can all embody and practice.

Auckland Museum has many beautiful objects from the Muslim world in its collections. This dish is from Iznik, a town in present day Turkey, east of Istanbul. In the 16th and 17th century it was a centre for ceramics producing beautiful and distinctive Iznik ware. Other examples of Iznik ware are currently on view in the Arts of Asia Gallery. Now that we have reopened, why not visit the Museum and take a look?

Be kind New Zealand. Kia kaha! Eid Mubarak!

New Zealand supermarkets have seen an unprecedented demand on flour, and the disruption to restocking has been largely due to delays in printing the paper packaging. But our flour wasn’t always packed this way. In the late 19th century and well into the 20th, New Zealand’s flour mills sold their flour in cotton sacks which were printed with the brand of the mill, like this flour bag from Partington’s Mill. From 1850 until its demolition in 1950, the Partington’s windmill was a distinctive landmark on the corner of Karangahape Road and Symonds Street. Partington’s Mill may be gone but other remnants of Auckland’s flour milling industry remain, like the Northern Roller Mills building on downtown Fort Street which has since been converted into apartments.

_{Image credit: Partington’s Mill Flour bag. AWMM. History collection.}

Good Friday is the day when Christians commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus, who they believe sacrificed his life as atonement for all sin. In ancient Rome, the form of execution was crucifixion, where the victim's hands and feet were bound and nailed to a cross, as depicted on the enamel missal cover from the Museum's Applied Arts and Design collection.

There are various sources that explain why the word 'good' is used to describe a sorrowful event; some speculate it to be a corruption of 'God's Friday,' others suggest that 'good' denotes the day as a holy day. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word 'good' within Christian context is used as an adjective to designate a day on which a religious observation is held.

_{Image credit: Missal Cover, Crucifixion of Christ rendered in champlevé enamel, Limoges, France, 13th Century. Auckland War Memorial Museum, M133, 1944.83.}