Heritage Landscapes Think Tank Report on Proceedings

From Chair of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board

Kia ora

I have pleasure in presenting the report on proceedings of the Heritage Landscapes Think Tank held by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga (the NZHPT) on 7 April 2003.

Approximately 145 people attended the Heritage Landscapes Think Tank at the Telstra Centre, Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand. Running a workshop on this scale, on such an innovative subject, presented challenges but responses indicate the event was widely considered to be both successful and timely. Its success was principally the result of some fine keynote addresses, skilled workshop leadership and facilitation and strong contributions by all the delegates. We express our thanks to every one of those involved, to Te Papa Tongarewa for the excellent facilities and to Wellington City Council for their sponsorship of the cost of the venue. We wish also to record our pleasure at the involvement of so many of our Australian heritage colleagues and note the Think Tank has, in many respects, paved the way for closer heritage co-operation.

• This report on the think tank proceedings has been drafted by Janet Stephenson, a member of staff from the NZHPT Dunedin office who is currently working towards a PhD relating to heritage landscapes. The report identifies the main ideas generated at the think-tank. It concludes that the think tank demonstrated -
  a widespread - if latent - understanding of heritage landscapes
• a strong commitment to the concept amongst practitioners in a range of disciplines, and
• a broadly-held concern that heritage landscapes are overlooked, undervalued and under threat.

More recently, when the Resource Management Amendment Bill (No. 2) received its second and third readings in the House of Representatives in May 2003, the words "cultural landscapes" and "ancestral landscapes" received some criticism and were deleted from the definition of historic heritage. Notwithstanding the leading role played by New Zealand internationally in promoting the cultural landscape definitions in the Operational Guidelines to the World Heritage Convention ten years ago, it is clear that there remains substantial work to be done domestically to clarify what is meant by heritage landscapes and to promote an understanding of them.

The NZHPT is progressing the following initiatives as a result of the Heritage Landscapes Think Tank:
(1) Development of a national NZHPT policy for heritage landscapes identification, protection and promotion;
(2) Development for consideration by the Maori Heritage Council of a paper on the ancestral landscapes concept;
(3) Follow up in the Bay of Islands, including collaborating with the Department of Conservation in their preparation of a Sustainable Development Plan for the Kerikeri Basin using funding allocated by the government in the 2003 Budget and through a hui being organised for Maori in Northland;
(4) Follow up in the Poverty Bay area and the Cook Landing Site, where NZHPT is working in very close co-operation with Department of Conservation, the Tairawhiti Museum and the NZHPT's local Branch in regard to the national Tairawhiti waka project, which takes into account the wider heritage landscape of Poverty Bay;
(5) Follow up in the Akaroa area: a Banks Peninsula hui is planned no later than early 2004, where the potential for a special heritage landscape project will be proposed, to be developed as an instrument for agreed management and planning by all community and statutory stakeholders. A funding proposal is being formulated for a heritage grant from a regional Trust.

Meanwhile, significant relevant initiatives are being taken by other agencies. These include:

(1) The recent publication by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Paremata of Superb or Suburb? - International case studies in management of icon landscapes (April 2003), which concludes (amongst other things) that the values of icon landscapes are not well protected by the market and require government intervention and national assistance.

(2) The forthcoming conference, Reclaiming our Heritage: The New Zealand Landscape Conference 25-26 July 2003 led by the Environmental Defence Society and the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects and administered by the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of Auckland, the purpose of which, amongst other things is to identify better ways to manage our special places.

If you attended the Think Tank on 7 April, I thank you for your valuable participation and look forward to keeping you informed of developments in our quest to have heritage landscapes embraced as a matter of national importance. If you were unable to be there on the day but requested a copy of this report, I look forward to your continued interest. Further copies may be obtained by contacting the New Zealand Historic Places Trust's national office at Antrim House, 63 Boulcott Street, Wellington (phone 04 470 8050 or email spatton@historic.org.nz).

Yours sincerely

Dame Anne Salmond
Chair, New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board

Report on Proceedings
(pdf file, 322 kb)

A hard copy may also be obtained by contacting Sandra Patton at Trust's National Office, tel 04 470 8050 or by email.

Read the opening address from the Chair of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board.