by Hanna Lu* Let’s start with an end. ‘Chinatown’, located in what is now the city centre’s Greys Avenue, faded out of existence in the 1960s. As its buildings were demolished and its residents moved out, the 1966 Auckland Star published an article in which the author...

by Hanna Lu* you have to understand,that no one puts their children in a boatunless the water is safer than the land … no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your earsaying-leave,run away from me nowi don’t know what i’ve becomebut i know that anywhereis...

by Hanna Lu* History is not about us. I mean, the people involved are usually not us. But the stories we tell are about ourselves, and who we’ve been, and what we mean when we say ‘ourselves’. Are there concepts of who we are that rest on the exclusion of certain...

by Brooke Stevenson* Mere Newton and Mary Dreaver were two women in politics in the 1930s that commanded an influential were voice within their respective communities. On the 28th August 1939, Mere Newton suspended standing orders of the Onehunga Borough Council...

by Brooke Stevenson*   Mere Newton, local Māori politician and social worker, and Mary Dreaver, a daughter of Scottish immigrants and a national politician, operated within their vastly different spheres of influence in 1937. However, Newton and Dreaver’s...

by Brooke Stevenson*   Auckland’s female political history has been more vibrant and diverse than one might assume. After trail blazers such as Elizabeth Yates and Ellen Melville, we see the emergence of women who become experts in mastering the art of networking...

by Nancy Mitchelson* In August of 1979, things were still looking hopeful for a proposed pedestrian mall in Queen Street, following the carnival-like, week-long trial in May. Furthermore, the closing off of the Wellesley/Victoria street block was approved by the ACC...

by Nancy Mitchelson* Deep in the Auckland City Council archives, direct democracy of a bygone era has been wholly preserved in fountain pen and typewriter ink. This takes the form of copious amounts of letters to the mayor and planning committee, reacting to one of...

by Nancy Mitchelson*   It was first week of the 1979 May school holidays and Auckland’s main thoroughfare was to be closed for a trial pedestrian mall. A trial was initially approved due to pressure from the Tramways union, whose trolley bus drivers wanted to...

by Nancy Mitchelson*   The concept of closing part of Queen Street to cars and creating a pedestrian oasis in the middle of Auckland's own ‘Golden Mile,’ is not a novel one. In fact, this idea has existed in some form since at least 1968, when Mayor Sir Dove-Myer...

by Nancy Mitchelson* It was the 1970s, and Auckland’s central area was facing a crisis of purpose.   This crisis had been brewing for some time, born out of the growth of the motor car, a rapidly expanding motorway network, and developing state housing in an...

by Nicolas Jones* The Māori Community Centre, set up in 1947, was an important component in the reestablishment of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s community identity. During a period of significant upheaval and devastation for Ngāti Whātua, the Centre provided space for a...