News & Events

“From the Hangi pit to the Weetbix kid:

Recording the history of food in New Zealand”

Records and Archives Week (RAW) is held during the first week of May and celebrates the importance of records, archives and the recordkeeping and archival professions.  Programme of events for RAW 2011.

The theme of RAW 2011 is food. The way we gather, produce, prepare, distribute and consume food has changed dramatically over time. Food is intimately related to our sense of identity and what it means to be a New Zealander. Archives and records are an important means of documenting the impact of food on our daily lives.

This food theme is one that can be explored in many aspects such as the social, cultural, traditional, environmental, scientific, medical, commercial, and domestic. We are hoping that all institutions will find this a rich and exciting theme to explore. This is a chance to show your community and the general public the power records and archives have to connect people to the importance of food, and how professionals such as archivists and records managers help to do that.

Key themes to consider:

• Retaining our archives and records relating to food is important to our economic and social history.
• Food plays an important role in our society and is reflective of our cultural, traditional lives and as well as the changing demography of New Zealand.
• Much of our economic development has been based on food such as our meat, diary and fruit industries.
• We need to be aware of the risks to records and archives that document all aspects of food, and that that this history may be lost to future generations if these records are not retained.

Please remember that each ARANZ branch is eligible to apply for a grant of up to $500 towards a RAW event. So get your thinking hats on and come up with some exciting and creative ways of promoting the value of records and archives management in your community in May 2011.

Records and Archives Week: Resources for Contributors

For more information and to list your RAW event on the ARANZ website please contact the RAW Councillor - Kirsty Cox