Our 45th Birthday: Our Progession

Yesterday we kicked off our birthday weekend with a peek at where our story began with Operation Heritage. Today, we want to share a little bit more about our history and our progression from conceptual drawings to the museum we are now, through four main stages of building.

 

Stage 1: The challenge was thrown down by Major General Hassett CBE in 1977 that the museum would be built in less than a year. The Royal New Zealand Engineers took up the challenge and, through a typical Waiouru winter, they achieved the feat in only 276 days. The memorial museum opened on 15 October 1978 with the vision to acquire, preserve, and display aspects of New Zealand’s military history, and to serve as a research and teaching facility. This vision very much underpins what we continue to do today.

 

Stage 2: In 1983 an extension was added to the southern end of the museum, with new display space, storage space, and work areas. The new display space opened with a stunning exhibition on Gallipoli in support of the book launch of ‘Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story’ by military historian, Christopher Pugsley.

 

Stage 3: Finished in 1995, the construction of the Kippenberger Pavilion to the north of the museum, connected via a ramp over the moat to the original building, included the new shop, café, and the Kippenberger Military Archive and Research Library. It also enabled us to create our unique memorial ‘Roimata Pounamu – Tears on Greenstone’, commemorating New Zealand’s conflict and war dead.

 

Stage 4: In 2017 the museum opened a new entryway and large gallery space, built on top of the moat and in place of the ramp that connected the Kippenberger Pavilion to the main museum building. The new gallery enabled us to create in-house displays, but also host larger touring exhibitions, such as the current exhibition “Auschwitz. Now.” from the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand. The finishing touches of the space with a large photographic mural and new display cases were completed this year.

 

Follow on tomorrow as we celebrate our 45th birthday!