Chinese footprints: A walking tour of Wellington’s history

Fully booked

This event is fully booked but please email us to put your name on the waiting list.

Email: ATLOutreach@dia.govt.nz

A Wellington walking tour of Chinese history

Chinese footprints, led by Lynette Shum (Oral History Advisor, Alexander Turnbull Library) and historian Nigel Murphy, will take attendees on a walking tour exploring the rich history of the Chinese in Wellington, much of which has been erased and is now largely invisible to passers-by. The tour will draw on images, ephemera, and oral history from the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

This two-hour tour highlights sites of significance for Wellington's early Chinese community including businesses, eateries and Haining Street's 'Chinatown'. The tour starts at the Wellington Trades' Hall Building with a brief introduction and concludes there with a pot of Chinese tea.

About the speakers

Lynette Shum, third generation Poon Yu Chinese New Zealander, is Oral History Advisor for the Alexander Turnbull Library. Her first home was on the fringes of Chinatown, yet she was unaware of its existence until researching what was to become the Haining Street Oral History Project. She has completed an MA on the topic.

Nigel Murphy has been researching, writing, and lecturing on Chinese New Zealand history for almost 40 years. His interests include the politics of Chinese New Zealanders, their organisations and associations, their social and cultural lives, their home villages, and their transnational connections with other Chinese overseas communities, the lives of Chinese women in New Zealand and at home in China, the history of Chinese people in Wellington, and many other Chinese New Zealand topics.