Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Podcast

Join our Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he recounts the remarkable story of HMS New Zealand, a Indefatigable class battlecruiser that took part in the largest naval battle of the First World War. This story first featured in the August-September 2025 issue of New Zealand Memories magazine. Reporter Reads Reporter Reads also feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Sign up here.

An edited live recording of the Open Christchurch 2024 event where four panelists discuss what it's like to live in and care for a mid-century home. Hosted in partnership by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture & City Making.

Join Senior Communications Advisor John O’Hare as he reads his recent article on the wild world of do-it-yourself electricity in 1930s Kerikeri.

Join Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he reads his recent article on the boom-and-bust world of tung nut oil in 1930s Northland. Tung Nuts in Aotearoa New Zealand The economic potential of the tung tree, whose seeds produce an oil that has been used by the Chinese as a natural varnish for 2,500 years, was identified and promoted in parts of the North Island in the 1930s as a sure-fire investment. Its future, however, appears to have been cut short by climate, mismanagement, and the dire impacts of the Great Depression. For Kerikeri resident, Jack Kemp, the tung nut collapse in the 1930s is personal. One of his great aunts – Daisy Herd – invested in the fledgling tung oil industry and felt firsthand the ‘tung lashing’ that happened when the whole scheme collapsed. Reporter Reads Reporter Reads feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more here.

Our first HNZPT Matariki podcast episode features interviews with five Māori Heritage New Zealand staff who share their wide-ranging thoughts and experiences about Matariki. Kaitohutohu Whanake Niki Partsch interviews: Tharron Bloomfield - growing, harvesting and eating taputini; a variety of kumara that were originally cultivated by Māori. Millie Harris - Matariki representing a way of life that she grew up with. Kellee-Rei Harris - Matariki as way to reconnect with her culture and her whakapapa roots in Te Tai Tokerau after an urban upbringing. Nigel Harris – kai gathering and cooking preparations for a magnificent Matariki feast at Te Whare Waiututu Kate Sheppard House. Matene Simon - the revival of the ancient Matariki ceremony, Te Hautapu Umukohukohu Whetū, at Taurua Marae Rotoiti in 2021.

While in lockdown we have recorded our first episode of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Podcast to take you behind the scenes of the heritage we care for throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand. In our first episode we ask some of our staff members from different backgrounds the question, ‘What does heritage mean to you?’ Their answers to this question shows the breadth of what we do as an organisation and the role that each New Zealander plays in our shared and individual heritage. This episode features Caroline Toplis, Program Manager of Tohu Whenua, bringing together significant heritage places across the country; Dean Whiting, Director Kaiwhakahaere Tautiaki Taonga and Kaupapa Maori in the Maori Heritage Team, supporting kaitiaki across the country to benefit their communities and taonga, and Michelle Horwood Manager Heritage Listing, working with two programs our New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero and National Historic Landmarks, highlighting Aotearoa, New Zealand’s most significant cultural heritage that have shaped us as New Zealanders. Take a listen to hear from our staff members during lockdown.