THEN :: Histories of Pāmutana

10/04/2026

100 years ago the war memorial in Te Marae o Hine - The Square was unveiled by the Prime Minister, J.G. Coates. Join us tomorrow to hear one, or all three, speeches given at the unveiling ceremony - a reinterpretation by THEN :: Histories of Pāmutana, involving the voices of three women, and 100 year old reporting in the Manawatū Standard. It's a drop-in session between 3-4pm on Sat 11 April. The weather forecast is ... 🌞. Bring your cellphone, consider bringing headphones (to connect to your cellphone or bluetooth-capable), or use our tech, including paper speech notes.

Find us at the war memorial in the centre of Te Marae o Hine - The Square.

Heritage Festival event listing:
https://citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz/whats-on/activity/sorrowing-mothers

📷 A composite image including elements of the war memorial, and a portrait of Jimmy Nash, Member of Parliament in 1926. He was another of the speech-givers. Can you guess who the third was?

07/04/2026

Update: Join us 2pm tomorrow. Free tickets available until midday: https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2026/the-lost-monument2/palmerston-north

🌧 Due to a heavy rain forecast from MetService New Zealand for this afternoon, we will now run The Lost Monument event tomorrow - Thursday 9 April at 2pm.

✏️ All registrants have been contacted by email.
✏️ DM or email [email protected] for more info
✏️ We have a new eventfinda listing coming with free tickets available until midday tomorrow

This event was original promoted by the for Wed 8 April: 1pm, 2pm, 3pm

Palmerston North City Library

06/04/2026

- the final week. Join us on Wednesday to play 'The Lost Monument' and solve the whodunit-style, real-life historical mystery!

1. Take a self-led tour with the game booklet.
2. Answer a question correctly and receive an old postcard showing your next location to receive a clue.
3. Consider who knows what may have happened to our first monument (which is YET to arrive, true story)
4. Test your hypnosis and solve the mystery!

Date: Wed 8 April
Time options: 1pm, 2pm, 3pm
Duration: 30 - 45 mins
Location: Outside Palmerston North isite Visitor Centre in Te Marae o Hine - The Square
Tickets are free. Register at: https://bit.ly/TheLostMonument-HF2026

With support from Earle Trust and with thanks to Palmerston North City Library for including this event in the festival.

Upcoming activities for Heritage Festival across the first half of this week.
All ages welcome. Activities kids will particularly enjoy are marked with 🖍️

Tuesday 7 April
🖍️Make your own 'tiny statement' badge making
10am-12pm, Central Library
👉Heritage Craft Group
1pm-4pm, Central Library

Wednesday 8 April
👉Walkshop: Savage Crescent
10.30am-11.30am, Savage Crescent
Register here: https://pncc.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=209461
🖍️The Lost Monument Game
1pm-4pm, Te Marae o Hine - The Square
Free Tickets here: https://bit.ly/TheLostMonument-HF2026
🖍️Make your own 'tiny statement' badge making
1pm-3pm, Central Library
👉1990: The Turning Point of New Zealand's International Education
6pm-7pm, IPU Library

Thursday 9 April
👉80th Anniversary of J Force in Japan
12pm-1pm, Central Library
👉Histories and Mysteries in the Collections: Te Manawa Museum "Glaxo Makes Bonny Babies"
6pm-7pm, Central Library

15/03/2026

It's and we've made a map you can access anytime during the festival, until 12 April. We've gathered together public art which remembers more than 20 people associated with our rohe / area.

Pou, and other sculptural forms, featuring tīpuna have been made by toi Māori practitioners such as John Bevan Ford, Hemi Te Peeti, Craig Kawana and Warren Warbrick.

🚲🚗 Determine your own self-led tour to one or more of eight sites in the city. Share your experience by scanning the QR code on the map so we can make an even better map for !

🖥 Find out more and access the pdf:
https://citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz/whats-on/activity/figures-of-p%C4%81mutana-a-new-self-led-tour

📍 Pick up a paper map at Central Library.

📷 Photo by Virginia Warbrick of Warren Warbrick with a "Figures of Pāmutana" map, seated in front of the sculpture remembering Hoani Meihana Te Rangiotu.

10/03/2026

invites you to walk the western end of the highway with artist Warren Warbrick. It is FREE to participate in 'Te Hīkoi Toi' thanks to Palmerston North City Library. Choose from Sat 14 March at 6pm or Fri 20 March at 2.30pm. We use sound amplification and the walk is almost flat - we don't walk up the hill!. Register (and read the fine print) online at:

🗓 Saturday: https://bit.ly/TeHikoiToi-14March
(The tour that ends at sunset)

🗓 Friday: https://bit.ly/TeHikoiToi-20March
(If you arrive early enough, there is time for coffee, ice cream or a snack at Gorge Quarter before the tour begins)

Find full festival details at: https://citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz/whats-on/programme/heritage-festival

📷 at Tuia Te Maunga on Parahaki Bridge. Virginia Warbrick, 2026.

05/03/2026

Kia ora e hoa - we are participating in - will you join us?
A brief overview of our planned activities ...

🚶‍♂️WALK: Te Hīkoi Toi at Te Ahu a Turanga with artist Warren Warbrick
Sat 14 March, 6pm and Fri 20 March, 2.30pm
100 min duration
Register: FREE tickets
https://bit.ly/TeHikoiToi-14March
https://bit.ly/TeHikoiToi-20March

✏️ WORKSHOPS: Sorrowing Mothers (Palmerston North War Memorial)
Sun 15, Mon 16, Sun 29, Mon 30 March, all at 2.30-3.30pm at Central Library
Register: Just walk up

🔎 GAME: The Lost Monument in Te Marae o Hine - The Square
Wed 8 April: 1pm, 2pm, 3pm (during the school holidays)
Register: FREE tickets https://bit.ly/TheLostMonument-HF2026

🖥 PD: Heritage Tools for Teachers (and Principals)
Fri 10 April, 10.30am-2.30pm
Register: FREE and pick-and-mix
https://bit.ly/HeritageTools

🚗🚲 SELF-LED TOUR: Figures of Pāmutana (sculptures and murals)
Pick up a map from Central Library between 8 Mar - 12 April

More details and information about the festival:
https://citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz/whats-on/programme/heritage-festival

Home / What's on / Programme / Heritage Festival Nau mai, haere mai! The Heritage Festival runs from March 8 to April 12 this year.Take part in a plethora of activities that will expand your understanding and celebrating all things heritage. It includes talks, walks, and guided tours, offering somet...

15/02/2026

Warren has vivid memories of growing up in Roslyn and he shared some of his tales at a public gathering at the Edwards Pit Park yesterday.

14/02/2026

Did you know that only English sculptors were considered for the commission to design a war memorial for Palmerston North? Thanks to a large stack of letters in the Ian Matheson City Archives we can read, in great detail, the workings of the various war memorial subcommittees - publicity, districts, canvassing, finance, schools and, in the case of this Back Issues feature, the memorial subcommittee.

✏️ Mark your diary for any of 15, 16, 29 and 30 March, all at 2.30pm to participate in a hands-on workshop to reveal the sorrowing mothers of those named on the memorial, using civic and military records. More details in the upcoming promos for the Heritage Festival.

Letters reveal that, if it were not for a mailroom mishap in 1923, we may have had a very different monument in Te Marae o Hine / The Square today.

07/02/2026

One hundred years ago today, located in the absolute centre of Te Marae o Hine - The Square, a memorial to our war dead was unveiled. Designed by London-based artist Ferdinand Blundstone, the form is based on his earlier work for Folkestone, UK, with the bronze figure atop representing Sorrowing Motherhood.

Read about the unveiling ceremony on 7 Feb 1926: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19260208.2.3

This coming weekend, 14 Feb 2026: Read about aspects of the commissioning of the monument in 1923. Spoiler alert: There was a mailroom mishap!
See: Back Issues, Manawatū Standard Weekender - feature by Virginia Warbrick.

Next month, during the annual Heritage Festival: We are hosting some workshops for community researchers to collectively determine the sorrowing mothers of people named on our memorial: 15, 16, 29 and 30 March. Details to come.

📷 Detail in bronze - woman in kākahu; Highlighting great uncle Wilkie's name on the original panel after the small ceremony to mark 100 years; Bronze figure 'Sorrowing Motherhood', holding a wreath and flag at half mast.

14/12/2025

The former Palmerston North Post Office is being transformed into a hotel. We wrote a tiny piece for the latest Palmy Proud on key moments in time, including when a time capsule was lodged in a corner of the building.

👉 You can read more here, on page 9: www.pncc.govt.nz/PalmyProud

📷 To look closer at the foundation stone ceremony image:
https://manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz/item/31e95fec-d53f-4e4f-9c1f-131ffbea13bc

10/12/2025

The 1907 Parliamentary Library fire in Wellington had a number of consequences. One being that the Governor General relocated to Palmerston North for a couple of years. Lord Plunket, representing the Crown, lived at the house on the edge of Hokowhitu Lagoon that we know today as Caccia Birch House. Find out more at the house's exhibition on site.