Kia ora
We have a new exhibition in our cases on Level 4 outside the J.C.Beaglehole Room. The material is drawn from two collections of papers related to Vietnam and the Vietnam war, for which we have recently created finding aids.
One collection is papers from Freda Cook, who taught English at Hanoi University in North Vietnam from 1960-1968. For a fuller account of Freda’s life, have a look at her biography in Te Ara. Freda’s papers give us a very personal perspective as well as a rare glimpse of the other side of the coin from the one we usually see.
The other collection came to us from Cath Kelly, also an activist of some note and – coincidentally(?) writer of Freda’s entry in Te Ara. Between them they have gathered a very good collection of material related to the protest movement against New Zealand’s involvement in the war, and with Freda’s material from her time in North Vietnam, this display offers a fascinating perspective on this significant event.
The exhibition will run until mid-June (with a brief interval for Samoan Language week 26-20 May).