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NATIONAL DANCE ARCHIVE OF NEW ZEALAND
NGA KAITIAKI TAONGA KANIKANI O AOTEAROA Report from the Chair 17 June 2021 After the great uncertainty of last year, this year, in comparison, has seemed relatively straight forward. While oral history projects continue to progress the biggest excitement of the past twelve months has been the publishing of the National Dance Archive’s website: http://www.dancearchive.org.nz/ Trustees Our trustees remain the same this year: Geordan Wilcox in Auckland, Philippa Pidgeon in Christchurch, and the rest of the trustees mostly based in Wellington – Peter Boyes, Kim Crawford, Debra Harris, Katherine Lancaster, Brigitte Knight, and Sue Nicholls. It will be good to now look at ways a more national focus can have the greatest effect on the creation and keeping of dance archives in and relating to New Zealand. Technology Subcommittee Drawing on her past experience of web design, Brigitte has produced a stand-alone website for the NDA. While traffic to the website has been steady, it is a great starting point and it has already proven useful for referring people to on occasions. It is still the intention to have a NDA presence on the DANZ website and that will link to the NDA website for further information. Archiving Resources Subcommittee The Archiving Resources Subcommittee’s careful planning of disseminating information has finally been brought to fruit in the form of a website. The subcommittee are now looking at where to next with their efforts. Oral Histories Subcommittee The NZ Lottery Grants Board funding that we received in November 2019 for an oral history project to interview Jamie Bull, Shona McCullagh, Jenny Stevenson, and Carla van Zon, is nearing completion. We are very thankful for Lyne Pringle once again being the interviewer for this project and appreciate the effort that she has put into conducting the interviews and preparing them for archiving. Jennifer Shennan, who has also received training as an oral history interviewer, offered to conduct an interview of Patricia Rianne. This was a ‘top-up’ of the oral histories Hugo Manson conducted with Patricia Rianne in 2005 and 2007. Jennifer has offered to do this for the Trust at minimal cost, which is very much appreciated. Jennifer Shennan’s own oral history, interviewed by Michelle Potter in February 2019, is still to be completed. Hopefully this will be able to happen in the next twelve months with travel between Australia and New Zealand starting to free up. Sponsorship and Funding Subcommittee With having a website comes an annual expense that we must budget for. The sale of NDA cards in the National Library Shop, as well as at the Russell Kerr Lecture in February this year, continues to provide a small but steady revenue stream. Other avenues of fundraising have been investigated and will need to be followed up on. With social and cultural events a bit more stable now than they were last year it is hoped this will allow to happen some of the fundraising ideas we have had. Other Matters The NDA was very eager to offer support to DANZ when the opportunity presented itself for funding rounds. It is a very unpleasant situation with DANZ having its funding cut, given the vital role it plays in the cultural, social and educational aspects of dance in New Zealand. The Year Ahead Building on the efforts of the past twelve months it is hoped to see a growing awareness of NDA in the New Zealand dance community. Developing a closer, stronger working relationship with DANZ will help this, as will the growing awareness and interest in, and the use of the NDA website. With the ever-growing list of oral histories commissioned by NDA, it continues to grow the research resource the Trust is creating. This is now able to be promoted through the website. Conclusion Once again I offer my sincere thanks to all the Trustees for the time you have volunteered to serving on the NDA committee. Your work, enthusiasm and ideas for the Trust has sustained the progress that was spurred on by the high points of receiving funding and launching the website. I hope you have all found reward to some level through your involvement with NDA over this past year. Thank you once again to our Treasurer, Carolyn McKeefry, for faithfully managing our accounts throughout the past twelve months. And a big thank you to DANZ for offering the meeting room at Toi Poneke gratis. We look forward to closer associations the DANZ team in the coming months. Keith McEwing Chairperson 15 June 2021
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NATIONAL DANCE ARCHIVE OF NEW ZEALAND
NGA KAITIAKI TAONGA KANIKANI O AOTEAROA Report from the Chair 18 June 2020 Not wanting to do disservice to Charles Dickens but the past twelve months has been the best and worst of times. The good times have involved new committee members joining and received funding for an oral history project. The worst has been for the whole of New Zealand in Lockdown as the World faces a pandemic. ‘The worst’ has meant working in different ways, leading us to all attend our April meeting via Zoom. Trustees At this AGM we formally welcome two new trustees – Brigitte Knight and Geordan Wilcox – who both expressed interest in joining the committee earlier this year. Geordan is based in Auckland and it is good to have a representative of the NDA there. Brigitte long-term is also based in Auckland but currently working in Wellington. With Philippa Pidgeon in Christchurch we now have two, potentially three members outside of Wellington and we hope this is a step towards a more national representation of the National Dance Archive. Archiving Resources Subcommittee The Archiving Resources Subcommittee continues its work on the wording for the information sheet for the NDA. With this document forming the basis for several channels that people will first hear about NDA it is important to get the tone and content right before we use it for publicity and promotion. Oral Histories Subcommittee It was with great excitement that in November we received a grant for an oral history project from the NZ Lottery Grants Board from their Lottery Environment and Heritage Committee. This project will interview Jamie Bull, Shona McCullagh, Jenny Stevenson, and Carla van Zon. Thank you to Lyne Pringle for her assistance providing budgets for the application and her knowledge of past NDA oral history projects from her time as a trustee. We are also thankful for her general enthusiasm and encouragement for the oral history project and for being willing to be our interviewer for this project. Although the project start date has been held up by the national response to COVID-19 it is otherwise ready to go and Lyne still intends to have the project completed within the twelve-month timeframe. Jennifer Shennan’s oral history conducted in part in February 2019, interviewed by Michelle Potter, is still to be completed. This has not been forgotten, however, and all parties remain willing in principle to complete the project. Sponsorship and Funding Subcommittee The sale of NDA cards in the National Library Shop continues to provide a small but steady revenue stream. Other avenues of fundraising have been investigated and will be followed up. Extra funding is needed to supplement the grant from the NZ Lottery Grants Board to complete the oral history project. Technology Subcommittee The focus of the Technology Subcommittee this year has been video conferencing for meetings, for Philippa to join us remotely from Christchurch. Further to this, the April meeting was held via Zoom, with meeting in person not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions. It is still the intention to have a webpage linked to the DANZ website and that is likely to be acted upon in the coming year. The working paper of the Archiving Resources Subcommittee is progressing towards being ready for publishing and the webpage will be the first place it is used. The Year Ahead I look forward to the current oral history project taking place. All four interviewees have had very dedicated careers in dance by various means, and hearing what they have to say of their experiences will prove very interesting listening. Having our own web presence will also be something to anticipate. Conclusion I offer my sincere thanks to all the Trustees and the time you have volunteered to serving on the NDA. Volunteering your time and fitting in the work of the NDA around very busy schedules is inspiring. I hope that seeing the progress made by the Trust the last few years, as outlined in the working documents, has brought some satisfaction for being a Trustee. Thank you particularly to Kim in her role as secretary and completing the important but often overlooked role of taking minutes. Thank you also to Sue, who with Peter stepped up to complete the NZ Lottery Grants application while I headed out of the country for seven weeks. Thank you as well to our Treasurer, Carolyn McKeefry, for faithfully managing our accounts throughout the past twelve months. As well as reports for meetings this has also included supplying invoices to National Library for the card sales and several other accounting tasks. Finally, a big thank you to DANZ through offering the meeting room at Toi Poneke gratis. Our thanks also for their willingness to host our webpage as part of their website and the many other ways they support the NDA. With reports of their reduced funding this year, their continued support to the NDA is especially appreciated in these times. Keith McEwing Chairperson 16 June 2020 |
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