Russell Toplis says the new route has opened his eyes to more New Zealand history. Photo: Ke-Xin Li
Russell Toplis says the new route has opened his eyes to more New Zealand history. Photo: Ke-Xin Li
Russell Toplis is a volunteer tour guide at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Until a few months ago, he would spend half his tours in the Māori Court and Pacific Galleries, telling stories of the voyage to Aotearoa, and showing visitors the 25 metre long waka.
But that's no longer possible after the discovery of asbestos in the ceiling and roof there.
"I use this as my map, as my surrogate for the map."
He pointed to a display cabinet with paddles.
"The paddles from all over the Pacific, which they would have used to paddle their canoes, as the Māori call it, waka.
"We can talk about how the archaeologists figured out the patterns and a lot of it's through language, and the language is demonstrated here where the Māori name for a paddle is 'hoe' and when you look at the names [of the paddle] in the other Pacific Islands you can see they rhyme or are a derivation of 'hoe'."
Toplis said his experience at the museum had made a big impression on him. In his days at school, Māori history was avoided and he said that left a big gap in his knowledge.
"In the last 15 to 20 years my wife and I have been travelling in a campervan all around New Zealand and I've always been interested in reading the plaques. And every plaque I read and drove my family mad as I read these plaques, I want to learn more about what's been going on in this country.
"In my retirement, I wanted something to do and I was put onto it by another experienced guide, they said, 'Russell... Why don't you get into guiding?'. 'You'll learn a lot more about New Zealand's history.'
"That's exactly what's happened and it's really, I've just fed off the information that we're given."
Closure of Māori Court and Pacific Galleries means volunteer guides have to be creative in their story telling. Photo: Ke-Xin Li
The gallery closure is a blow for the museum - multi-million dollar asbestos remediation bill means 30 paid roles could go, and plans for the 2029 centenary are up in the air.
But Toplis and the volunteers said it gave new opportunities to tell different stories about different objects.
"Because they're temporarily closed, we've been forced into doing new routes and we have been trained, formally and well, both with the trainers and the curators to learn other aspects of the museum.
"So, it's opened the museum up to me to get a wider understanding.
"We've just had to pivot into not having the big exhibits of the Māori court and rely on some of the smaller exhibits to relate our stories."
Lily Liu (right) has been volunteering at Auckland Museum for the last two years. Photo: Lily Liu
Lily Liu is a PHD student who volunteers her Sundays as a Mandarin speaking guide.
She said the volunteers had been innovative.
"Volunteers like us are quite flexible and adaptable and resilient in a way, so we have to work around the situation and we have to work around the closed court.
"We've designed four different tour route options by now, and I think every single one of them is very interesting, very attractive, and able to tell the whole story without going through the closed court.
"We are still able to deliver a high quality, interesting, intriguing tour experience for all tourists."
August was summer holiday for many Mandarin speaking countries and busy time for guides like Lily.
She said visitors didn't really notice the gallery closures.
"The story is still the same, give the similar experience, except using different objects."
Ros Currie is the manager of volunteer services. She said Māori and Pacific history was still central to the redesigned tours.
Ros Currie said in tough times, having the help from volunteer guides means a lot to everyone there. Photo: Supplied
"This is why visitors from overseas come to the museum.
"We got caught a bit by surprise with the asbestos closure, so it took us about a month to catch up and get the tours back going again. But when the galleries reopen, on the day that they reopen, the new tours will be operating.
"Because museums are always growing and changing, they don't stay the same. Any museum is always closing galleries to be redeveloped and have new things put in. It's part of our life.
"We're used to doing it that way and we've always done that. We've just done a bit more of it this year than we usually do."
She said in times like this, having the help from 80 volunteer guides meant a lot to everyone there.
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