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World on our (new) doorstepPosted January 2010
Te Tuhi Purakau (l) and CEO Jeanette Richardson (r) welcome Sarah Li to the Treaty Grounds
Warm weather and $5 million dollars worth of new facilities are finding favour with a new world of visitors to Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Admissions are up, and the faces are changing.
Along with an increasing number of local visitors, the Treaty Grounds has been attracting a noticeable diversity of nationalities from all over the country this Christmas period, says Chief Executive Jeanette Richardson, and many of them are new New Zealanders.
Staff at the Treaty Grounds’ new gateway centre now have the space and facilities to welcome and engage with every visitor individually, says Jeanette Richardson. This is allowing them to share the stories of many nationalities – many of whom they are discovering to be new Kiwis. “We have especially noticed that African and Asian visitors seem more represented this summer, and we’ve had also had Danes, French and other Europeans in addition to the usual American and British visitors. What is intriguing is that many are migrant families who are taking advantage of the holidays to come and learn about the history and cultural richness of their adopted new homeland.”
Michael Li from Epsom was typical of many new Kiwis bringing their young families to Waitangi. “It is a chance to combine a holiday with something educational,” he commented. He says his young daughter Sarah became excited just seeing the familiar one-way bridge across the Waitangi River because her class at Epsom Normal School had studied the Treaty Grounds. “She said ‘I can’t believe I’m here – it is a real thing!’” Now Sarah is going back to Auckland with the message that her whole class should go to visit the nation’s birthplace.
“There’s no doubt that the free entry for New Zealanders is attracting more people to The Birthplace,” says Jeanette Richardson. “Our entry statistics show a growth of 21 percent in New Zealand admissions. That follows the stellar doubling of Kiwi admissions after we introduced free entry in 2008. Waitangi is really welcoming the world – and much of this new world has recently chosen to come and live in New Zealand. Now they are choosing Waitangi to learn about it .”
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