Primary sources

In February 1899 under the heading A Terrible Death, the Press Association reported a gum digger skeleton had been found high up in a kauri tree, entombed in kauri gum!

So what connects this macabre newspaper report to the Treaty of Waitangi, to your last email or the photograph you just took? Well, they’re all primarysources.

Primary sources are clues people leave about their lives and they come in many forms.They exist because when people experience events, they often record first hand what they saw, heard and felt. Examples include letters, photographs, posters and yes in this digital era emails and tweets.

In fact, the digitisation of primary sources over the last two decades has seen institutions like the National Library of New Zealand place thousands of its primary sources freely online.

One excellent and well-used example is the Service to Schools Primary Source section here.

This not only provides a growing treasure of topic-based New Zealand primary sources galleries but it also includes resource activity guides and provides information on how to use and find them.

The site offers a unique opportunity for students to discover New Zealand primary sources and develop their analytical skills while exploring past lives and events in very real and personal way.

One pertinent example (with ANZAC day coming up) is this student posted question on Many Answers:

How do I write a diary for a World War One soldier? What do I do?

Our ANZAC gallery provides a perfect resource for this. The fourth item is digitised Gallipoli war diary, by Alfred Cameron.

What better way and poignant way to explore writing a war diary than reading the real thing?