Our Taonga – Te Rau Herenga: The History of the LIANZA President’s Pounamu
Helen Heath, LIANZA Communications Advisor, received an apparently innocent email earlier this year from then President, Rachel Esson, saying,
“For the records – perhaps a story on the LIANZA President’s pounamu at some point would be interesting – with photos of various presidents wearing it?”
Little did we know what a rabbit hole this would take her down! Helen shares her research journey below.
“For the records – perhaps a story on the LIANZA President’s pounamu at some point would be interesting – with photos of various presidents wearing it?”
Little did we know what a rabbit hole this would take her down! Helen shares her research journey below.
My first port of call was our current LIANZA President, Anahera Morehu. Anahera didn’t know the origin story but she asked Past President, Te Paea Paringatai, if she knew more and what the name of our taonga is.
Te Paea replied, “It did not have a name when I became LIANZA President. I asked the same question. The logical name was Te Rau Herenga and we adopted that from my presidency in 2016.”
I then asked Past-President, John Garraway, if he knew more. He replied, “Unfortunately I don’t know much about the origins of the pounamu as it predated my time on LIANZA Council. What I do know is that it followed the re-branding of LIANZA led by Barbara McKerrow in 1998/1999 as the pounamu is in the shape of the stylized Z. My guess as to the first person who wore it was either John Redmayne (2000), Spencer Lilley (2001), or Lisa Tocker (2002). I definitely remember Mirla Edmundson, Steven Lulich and then I wore it between 2003-2006. I can’t remember Penny Carnaby (1999) wearing it but she may have been involved.” My research journey continued with an email to Lisa Tocker and Mirla Edmundson. Lisa responded, “It was Spencer who was the first to wear it I think, as I got it commissioned when I was Deputy….or did I make that up? I got the President’s one and the conference ones made at the same time….(gifts for overseas speakers that were smaller) Then that lovely young guy after us (Steven Lulich) lost it somewhere?” Mirla replied, “Yes – Steven Lulich lost it! And I commissioned and arranged the replacement.” |
Human memory is fallible it seems! Spencer Lilley said, “No, I definitely got it off John Redmayne, but I think Penny Carnaby might have been the first to have it.” To which Penny responded, “Yes I wore the LIANZA pounamu on all visits around the country. It always felt good to wear it.”
So, I tracked down Steven Lulich to hear his side of the story. He replied sheepishly, “In 2004 I became LIANZA President so inherited the pounamu which I proudly wore, in that year I also attended the UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) meeting which was held in Beijing China.
The meeting was held over three days which included visits to see UNESCO heritage cultural sites as well as occasional shopping trips when they could squeeze them in! On one such shopping trip, we visited a fairly large tailor shop, which produced suits they could alter to fit you personally. At such a great price I succumbed to purchasing a suit to be altered for me. I had for some reason taken the pounamu with me on that outing.
When I got changed I thought I had put the pounamu safely in the pocket of the sleeveless jacket I wore. The pocket had a zip on it so it should have been secure in there, plus would have been unseen by anyone who may enter the changing room in my absence. However, when I got back to the hotel much to my horror I discovered it was not in my pocket!
I contacted the tailor immediately but their English was not good and I was very doubtful that they understood me. I returned the next day to pick up the suit and went with a translator – but they told me they had not found the pounamu. We were flying out the next day, so there was little I could do but resign myself to the fact I had lost it. In hindsight, I should have left it in the safe of my hotel room.
On my return to New Zealand, I notified the LIANZA Office of the loss and it was briefly discussed at the LIANZA Council – much to my embarrassment. The Council members were a bit startled but were more concerned about getting it replaced than any admonishment of me.
Luckily for me, the Immediate Past President, Mirla Edmondson, managed to requisition a carving of a new pounamu in time for the inauguration of John Garraway to replace me as LIANZA President. The new pounamu was presented to him at his first council meeting as President.
Poor Steven is still traumatised by this story, even today, so we are grateful for the generosity of spirit in sharing his story so honestly!
So, I tracked down Steven Lulich to hear his side of the story. He replied sheepishly, “In 2004 I became LIANZA President so inherited the pounamu which I proudly wore, in that year I also attended the UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) meeting which was held in Beijing China.
The meeting was held over three days which included visits to see UNESCO heritage cultural sites as well as occasional shopping trips when they could squeeze them in! On one such shopping trip, we visited a fairly large tailor shop, which produced suits they could alter to fit you personally. At such a great price I succumbed to purchasing a suit to be altered for me. I had for some reason taken the pounamu with me on that outing.
When I got changed I thought I had put the pounamu safely in the pocket of the sleeveless jacket I wore. The pocket had a zip on it so it should have been secure in there, plus would have been unseen by anyone who may enter the changing room in my absence. However, when I got back to the hotel much to my horror I discovered it was not in my pocket!
I contacted the tailor immediately but their English was not good and I was very doubtful that they understood me. I returned the next day to pick up the suit and went with a translator – but they told me they had not found the pounamu. We were flying out the next day, so there was little I could do but resign myself to the fact I had lost it. In hindsight, I should have left it in the safe of my hotel room.
On my return to New Zealand, I notified the LIANZA Office of the loss and it was briefly discussed at the LIANZA Council – much to my embarrassment. The Council members were a bit startled but were more concerned about getting it replaced than any admonishment of me.
Luckily for me, the Immediate Past President, Mirla Edmondson, managed to requisition a carving of a new pounamu in time for the inauguration of John Garraway to replace me as LIANZA President. The new pounamu was presented to him at his first council meeting as President.
Poor Steven is still traumatised by this story, even today, so we are grateful for the generosity of spirit in sharing his story so honestly!
I still needed a definitive ending, so I emailed Chris Szekely to see what he remembered. Chris suggested I talk with Ani Pahuru Huriwai who was Te Rōpū Whakahau tumuaki when Barbara McKerrow was LIANZA President. “They were a bit of a duo leading the NZLIA (as it was then) Council’s bicultural push. It was Ani who suggested adding the second ‘A’ for Aotearoa to LIANZ”, said Chris.
Ani had this to say, “Oh boy! Had to dig deep into my internal hard-drive for this info. From memory, I left LIANZA when I was about to give birth to my first son in 1999. Before that, I was Co-Chair of LIANZA with Barbara McKerrow, as President of Te Rōpū Whakahau.
We undertook a huge rebranding exercise to bring our NZLIA into the new century. The marketing company we contracted at the time suggested that NZLIA was too hard to say or remember, and came up with a new acronym LIANZ. And as Chris said, I suggested the addition of the A – Library and Information Association of NZ Aotearoa – to reflect our bicultural commitment. We did a HUGE launch at the 1998 NZLIA conference – with Barbara and I presenting the new brand as a news item. Barbara was April Ieremia and I was Kim Hawkesby – it was hilarious – that might be captured on film in some darkroom. It had the desired effect on the members agreeing to the name change and the brand.
[Editor’s note: We found the issue of Library Life reporting back on this conference but alas, no photographic evidence!]
The stylized Z is a matau or fishhook shape, capturing the purakau of Maui the navigator, and likening the work of librarians to navigators – which was all very new-age thinking back then, in 1999. I suggested that it would be great for the matau to be fashioned into matau pounamu ... I'm really proud that over 20 years on it still looks and is a great brand.”
Wow, Ani, we are very impressed and have to agree that Te Rau Herenga still looks great!
So, there you have it – the definitive history of Te Rau Herenga! We are glad to have traced the provenance of LIANZA’s taonga – the ups and downs over 20 years – and hope to keep adding to our image archive as photographs surface of Past Presidents wearing Te Rau Herenga. Let us know if you have any anecdotes to add to this story or photos of Past Presidents wearing it!
Ani had this to say, “Oh boy! Had to dig deep into my internal hard-drive for this info. From memory, I left LIANZA when I was about to give birth to my first son in 1999. Before that, I was Co-Chair of LIANZA with Barbara McKerrow, as President of Te Rōpū Whakahau.
We undertook a huge rebranding exercise to bring our NZLIA into the new century. The marketing company we contracted at the time suggested that NZLIA was too hard to say or remember, and came up with a new acronym LIANZ. And as Chris said, I suggested the addition of the A – Library and Information Association of NZ Aotearoa – to reflect our bicultural commitment. We did a HUGE launch at the 1998 NZLIA conference – with Barbara and I presenting the new brand as a news item. Barbara was April Ieremia and I was Kim Hawkesby – it was hilarious – that might be captured on film in some darkroom. It had the desired effect on the members agreeing to the name change and the brand.
[Editor’s note: We found the issue of Library Life reporting back on this conference but alas, no photographic evidence!]
The stylized Z is a matau or fishhook shape, capturing the purakau of Maui the navigator, and likening the work of librarians to navigators – which was all very new-age thinking back then, in 1999. I suggested that it would be great for the matau to be fashioned into matau pounamu ... I'm really proud that over 20 years on it still looks and is a great brand.”
Wow, Ani, we are very impressed and have to agree that Te Rau Herenga still looks great!
So, there you have it – the definitive history of Te Rau Herenga! We are glad to have traced the provenance of LIANZA’s taonga – the ups and downs over 20 years – and hope to keep adding to our image archive as photographs surface of Past Presidents wearing Te Rau Herenga. Let us know if you have any anecdotes to add to this story or photos of Past Presidents wearing it!