Interning with the Public Engagement team
Kia ora! In this blog post I share the work I did while I was an intern working with the National Library Public Engagement team. I worked on the Waitangi Day commemoration and a programne for older adults called ‘Tea and tours’.
Internship part of Masters in Musem and Heritage studies
I began my internship with the National Library’s Public Engagement team at the end of November in 2022. This internship was the final part of my Master of Museum and Heritage Practice studies. I was very excited to be able to intern in a team where public programming and education were the focus.
The GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) has always been an important part of my life. I have been working in this sector focusing on public programming and education through GLAM institutions since I was in high school, so studying for a master’s in museum and heritage was an easy and exciting decision for me.
As I began my internship, I was looking forward to building on skills that I had gained from this year of study. In early November, I met with my internship supervisors, Tanja Schubert-McArthur and Zoe Roland to discuss what my time being a part of their team would look like. We decided that my two main tasks would be to, work on the Waitangi Day commemoration that was coming up in February and to work with a team on the Library’s ’Tea and tours’ programme for older adults.
Ella Ayto in the National Library Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa foyer.
Ella Ayto and Tanja Schubert-McArthur in front of the He Tohu.
Waitangi Day commemoration
Every year on the 6 of February the National Library invites the public to join us at the Library and to visit He Tohu for a guided tour of Te Tiriti o Waitangi on Waitangi Day. which is held in an extraordinary curved room called He Whakapapa Kōrero, the document room.
He Tohu is a permanent exhibition of three iconic constitutional documents that shape Aotearoa New Zealand.
1835 He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni — Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand
1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi — Treaty of Waitangi
1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition — Te Petihana Whakamana Pōti Wahine
Inside He Whakapapa Kōrero, the doucment room.
My two main tasks for the Waitangi Day event were to: organize staff and the roster for the day, and to plan a number of activities that could run on the day to entertain, educate, and engage visitors.
Creating the roster involved compiling a list of staff who could run the guided tours of He Tohu and the original treaty sheets, staff to be on meet and greet and staff to help visitors with activities and engage in kōrero about Waitangi Day.
I wanted the activities to engage tamariki and rangatahi and encourage them to go on a guided tour of He whakapapa kōrero, the document room. With this in mind, I created a number of activities that encouraged interaction with Te Tiriti.
How did seeing Te Tiriti make you feel?
The main activity I developed involved asking young people to go on one of the guided tours we had running on the day. The tours were led by staff from Public Engagement, Tanja, Serah Sutherland, Tess Dalgety-Evans and Brenda Crooks. After the tour participants were asked to record their reaction to seeing the original treaty. A table was set out with templates for visitors to draw a picture of their reaction and to write out that reaction in both te reo Māori and English. Examples of emotions included:
mīharo | amazed
pukuriri | angry
whakahi | proud
māhirahina | curious
pōuri | sad
In the activity, I wanted to acknowledge that for many Waitangi Day can elicit mixed emotions. That is why I included both positive and negative emotions in the template for this activity to ensure that we held space for everyone’s feelings.
Example of How did seeing Te Tiriti o Waitangi make you feel activity.
Reflection space
Another activity that we set up on the day was a reflection space. We asked the question, “What will you do this coming year to be a good treaty partner?” I wanted to encourage people of all ages and at different stages of life to reflect on what it is to be a partner in the Treaty, along with career and personal decisions they could take in order to honour Te Tiriti. Some example responses were:
learn te reo
learn more about Te Tiriti, and my personal favorite,
collaborate with iwi at work.
Pledge page for Waitangi Day.
Other activities to commemorate Waitangi Day
Other activities set up on the day included: a ‘create your own treaty’ activity, and two sessions of the New Zealand Aotearoa timeline activity. The New Zealand Aotearoa timeline activity involved a rope and blocks detailing important events in New Zealand’s history, this activity engaged families in acknowledging the treaty’s position in our history.
During the New Zealand Aotearoa timeline activity, we encouraged visitors to add their own events to the timeline, both significant events that had already happened in their lives and their hopes for the future including a timeframe for when they want these hopes to be achieved, for example, “80% of New Zealanders to be fluent in Te Reo by 2060”.
New Zealand timeline activity.
Tess, one of the Public Engagement staff, ran a number of bilingual guided tours of He Tohu, ran a fantastic te reo Māori pronunciation workshop and a beautiful waiata workshop. Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision screened film footage of past Waitangi Day events from around the country that ran on a loop during the day.
Beautiful day of commemoration and kōrero
Around 300 people from Wellington, wider New Zealand and around the world visited us on Waitangi Day to commemorate, learn about and acknowledge Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Visitors on the day included the first (and loveliest) mobility service dog Lyric that the library has ever had visit and the first visitor on the day an American tourist who was excited and surprised to learn he was the first person in New Zealand to see the original treaty on Waitangi Day.
The day was very successful, it was a beautiful day of commemoration and conversation on both the history of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and what we can do to honour the Treaty partnership to make the future of Aotearoa a place that holds space for everyone. Working on this event has significantly boosted my confidence in my ability to plan programmes and manage people, which will undoubtedly benefit my future career in the GLAM sector.
‘Tea and tours’ programme for older adults
The biggest task of my internship was joining the team working on ‘Tea and tours’ the Library’s public programme for older adults. This was something that I was so excited to be a part of as during my masters research paper I looked into the intersection between the GLAM sector and older adults in New Zealand. Titled Senior Citizens Museum and Gallery Group: a Benefit to both the GLAM sector and Aotearoa’s Ageing Population?
My research evaluated the ways that both parties could benefit each other and what can be done to make programmes aimed at older adults better. I was able to bring my research to the ‘Tea and tours’ programme and share my findings and recommendations with the Public Engagement staff working on the programme; Reuben Love, Serah Sutherland, and Richard Busby.
In the first week of my internship I attended a ’Tea and tours’ session that around 12 older people and one twenty-something attended. We started by looking at photographs from the Library’s previous exhibition Trouble in paradise; Climate change in the Pacific.
Serah and Richard then took us all on a guided tour of the exhibition The long waves of our ocean where we all asked questions and discussed our favourite works in the exhibition, afterwards we settled down for a cup of tea or coffee and munched on biscuits while chatting about the exhibition and our lives.
Richard Busby, Senior Public Programme Specialist, talking the ‘Tea and tours’ group through the Long waves of our ocean exhibition.
My research has shown that programmes like ‘Tea and tours’ are highly beneficial and provide a space for older adults to engage socially, not only with their own generation but also for cross-generational socialization. I saw this social benefit in both the ‘Tea and tours’ sessions I attended. At the first session, I and the other twenty-year-old chatted with a couple of visitors, sharing our university experiences and comparing our experience to theirs.
‘Tea and tours’ group watching Waitangi Day footage from Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision.
In the second session, I attended, a couple in their 30s who had just moved from overseas attended to learn more about Aotearoa and we completed the New Zealand history timeline activity. During the activity, the overseas couple talked with older adults about their outlook on notable parts of our country's history. This intergenerational sharing can encourage older adults to reflect and can be cognitively stimulating, which has been proven to improve memory.
‘Tea and tours’ group completing the New Zealand Timeline activity
Research on benefits of GLAM programmes for older adults
A big part of my work around ‘Tea and tours’ was working on documents that could be used to improve the coming sessions. I prepared a document containing additional research on GLAM programmes for older adults.
As part of this research, I delved into the area of dementia care, which I had not explored during my initial research. I was particularly interested in this topic as it could potentially expand the Library's outreach to a wider range of people who could benefit from the ‘Tea and tours’ events.
Research shows that arts and history-based programming can serve as a viable non-pharmacological intervention for older adults living with dementia and with the help of Wellington-based dementia organisations this could be a service that the Library looks into providing.
I looked into museums, galleries and libraries that ran a similar programme to ‘Tea and tours’, notably an article on the programme for older adults held at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, UK. The article noted that co-design (working with older adults to create their perfect program) lead to their program’s success.
Co-designing events with older adults
Co-design is something that I had discussed with several library staff as a way to create effective programming and we decided to give it a go and co-design plan for ‘Tea and tours’. This co-design plan involved inviting older adults from the public and from retirement/care villages to participate in a ‘Tea and tours’ session and then participate in a hui discussing the pros and cons of the programme.
‘Tea and tours’ co-design plan.
The list of objectives from the co-design hui was to identify:
what participants want from ‘Tea and tours’
potential positive outcomes of the programme
barriers we and participants will need to overcome to make the programme more successful
how to effectively market tea and tours
how to make the library and its gallery spaces more accessible to a range of people
disability awareness
ideas for more activities outside of tours, for example, the timeline activity or guest speakers.
To aid this co-design session and to broaden the participants for ‘Tea and tours’ I created a list of contacts at retirement villages that we could contact along with a draft email to send out to retirement villages inviting residents to a session of the ‘Tea and tours’ programme. I also created an exit survey that can be used to guide this hui or can be used after each ‘Tea and tours’ session.
Promoting events for older adults
The last document that I worked on for ‘Tea and tours’ involved developing a marketing plan. The primary objectives of this plan were to broaden the Tea and Tours audience and increase the number of visitors. I identified two main categories of marketing strategies that would appeal to older adults: physical marketing, for example, posters, pamphlets, and newspaper ads and digital marketing, for example, emailing retirement villages/care homes and creating a digital poster for social media and organisations to use. I also considered locations where both physical and digital marketing could be distributed, such as doctor's offices, cafes, and churches.
‘Tea and tours’ marketing ideas.
Events for older adults have significant benefits
Being part of the ‘Tea and tours’ team was a highly fulfilling experience for me. My passion for this visitor group developed during my masters research and increased while working on this programme for older adults. The work gave me valuable insights into the effort that goes into creating these programmes as will as the joy they can bring to visitors. ‘Tea and tours’ exemplifies the significant benefits that I identified in my research for programmes of this type, including social engagement, reminiscing/conversation, and community engagement. The team responsible for this programme is doing commendable work.
Tēnā koutou
I want to say a massive thank you to my supervisors at the National Library Tanja and Zoe, alongside everyone in the Public Engagement team and extended Library staff who have been so welcoming and have made my time at the National Library so enjoyable, I have made some amazing connections and friendships while I’ve been here. Thanks to my fellow interns for all your friendship and advice over our time here and to our Masters lecturers for all your support.