KO WAI MĀTŌU | ABOUT
Celebrating heritage in Whakatū Nelson
Te Tauihu (the top of the South Island) has an abundance of heritage to celebrate and display. Broadgreen Historic House in Whakatū Nelson is one of its major attractions and has been owned by Nelson City Council since 1965. Other places to explore history in Te Tauihu include the Nelson Provincial Museum, Founders Heritage Park, the Suter Art Gallery, Motueka Museum, Golden Bay Museum and Marlborough Museum.
Heritage signs and information boards can be found across the city. Maps of Nelson's heritage walks have been developed for walkers and cyclists or for access by car or bus.
Taonga Tuku Iho, Nelson City Council’s Heritage Strategy 2022-2032, was approved by the council in September 2022. The name Taonga Tuku Iho translates to caring for and nurturing the treasure handed down from our ancestors. Nelson’s taonga tuku iho is precious and contributes significantly to the city’s unique character and sense of place.
Key people in the community helped to develop the strategy. Taonga Tuku Iho offers an holistic approach to understanding heritage located within a te ao Māori framework. This approach encompasses built heritage, as well as the importance of natural and metaphysical heritage, such as language, stories and the arts. Identifying heritage sites, taonga, heritage houses and heritage collections is an ongoing project for Nelson City Council, which aims to keep an accurate inventory of significant heritage assets in the city. The Nelson Resource Management Plan lists items protected in its appendices including notable trees and heritage precincts.
Heritage signs and information boards can be found across the city. Maps of Nelson's heritage walks have been developed for walkers and cyclists or for access by car or bus.
Taonga Tuku Iho, Nelson City Council’s Heritage Strategy 2022-2032, was approved by the council in September 2022. The name Taonga Tuku Iho translates to caring for and nurturing the treasure handed down from our ancestors. Nelson’s taonga tuku iho is precious and contributes significantly to the city’s unique character and sense of place.
Key people in the community helped to develop the strategy. Taonga Tuku Iho offers an holistic approach to understanding heritage located within a te ao Māori framework. This approach encompasses built heritage, as well as the importance of natural and metaphysical heritage, such as language, stories and the arts. Identifying heritage sites, taonga, heritage houses and heritage collections is an ongoing project for Nelson City Council, which aims to keep an accurate inventory of significant heritage assets in the city. The Nelson Resource Management Plan lists items protected in its appendices including notable trees and heritage precincts.
Broadgreen Historic House is operated by a dedicated team of Nelson City Council kaimahi (staff) who work closely with a group of volunteers
Meet the kaimahi
Te Kaunihera o Whakatū | Nelson City Council employs the following heritage specialists at Broadgreen Historic House
- Māhina MarshallKaitiaka Taonga / CuratorMāhina Marshall (Waitaha, Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) oversees Broadgreen Historic House’s two collections, the historic Clothing and Textile Collection, and the House Collection, as well as house exhibitions, public programmes and maintenance. Māhina has previously installed the new collection store at Broadgreen Historic House, and advocated for the recognition of the incredible clothing and textile collection. She enjoys working with incredibly knowledgeable textile technician Karen Richards, helped set up the ever popular Textile Kids programme (run by the wonderful Di Scott), and initiated the re-organisation of the collection store at Founders Park. Besides her passion for history and conservation, Māhina also enjoys time with her whānau, getting out into nature, bonsai and writing, including poetry, short stories and historic fiction.
- Karen RichardsTextiles Technician and Co-Curator ExhibitionsTextiles has always been Karen's passion. In 2008, she was awarded a Royal Society Teaching Fellowship in ‘the preservation, conservation, and display of textiles in a museum setting’. This enabled her to work at the Nelson Provincial Museum Research and Collection Facility, and to travel extensively overseas to visit a number of smaller museums to get a behind the scenes view of various museum and conservation programmes. After returning to teaching on a part time basis, Karen began volunteering at the Nelson Provincial Museum where she completed a Certificate in Museum Studies. She also began volunteering at Broadgreen Historic House as a textiles technician, assisting the curator with accessioning and inventory of objects, interventive and remedial conservation, and many other aspects of collection care. Karen has co-curated five exhibitions with Māhina Marshall at Broadgreen Historic House.
- Ari EdgecombeKaiārahi Whare Taonga / Curator Founders Heritage Park and Heritage FacilitiesAri Edgecombe is Kaiārahi Whare Taonga / Curator at Founders Heritage Park and part of the Heritage Facilities curatorial and collections team (which includes work at Broadgreen Historic House). He is also an artist and curator who lives, works, and enthusiastically plays in the region and is an active member of the Zappekin artist collective. As an artist, Ari is actively engaged in art practice individually and collectively through hands-on making stuff, installation, performance art and film production. A significant element of his art practice is committed to documenting LGBTQIA+ social histories and contemporary perspectives through film and visual arts.
Collaborative and people-centric, Ari is a whole-hearted advocate for LGBTQIA+ communities, with visibility, accessibility and connection at the heart of much of his activities. An experienced and enthusiastic volunteer for Nelson Pride since 2021, Ari advocates strongly for diverse representation, human rights and authentic partnership. - Jane DoogueTeam Leader Kaiarataki Toi / TaongaJane Doogue joined the Arts & Heritage team at Nelson City Council in 2023 and is proud to be leading the team that looks after heritage sites like Broadgreen Historic House and Founders Heritage Park. Jane has a background in local government, having worked at local councils in Christchurch and Adelaide in South Australia before returning to live in Nelson. Jane has worked in a range of roles from festivals and events, marketing, communication and community engagement, to environmental management. Jane is passionate about the arts and heritage, especially the opportunity to work alongside the many people who make Nelson tick as a lively community that values, promotes, and supports the arts, and heritage. Jane has appreciated fabric and textiles since being a child, with a grandmother and mother who designed and made many exquisitely tailored clothing items. Over the years, Jane has spent many hours hunting and collecting taonga – including New Zealand-made ceramics and textile art. She is also an outdoors enthusiast, with a love of tramping, mountain biking and running in the hills.
Margaret Paul
Curator 1978-2014
As Broadgreen Historic House curator from 1978-2014, Margaret Paul led the preservation and cataloguing of the historic collection and developed the heritage tourism service at Broadgreen. She also spent five years as a volunteer prior to that.
The chair of Broadgreen Society, Mary Gavin, remembers Margaret and her incredible influence on the development of Broadgreen Historic House.
“As the curator of Broadgreen Historic House Margaret had an unswerving commitment to preserving and communicating the unique history surrounding the House, its families and its artefacts,” says Mary.
“Margaret also had a strong sense of responsibility and accountability towards the donors of the Victorian and Edwardian textiles and artefacts which furnish the House and she was meticulous about researching and displaying them in an authentic setting. This is reflected in the attractive and accessible way that Broadgreen House is presented to the public today.
“Over forty years, Margaret trained more than 200 volunteer guides and empowered them to provide a well-informed heritage tourism service. Her legacy is that many of these guides continued to volunteer at Broadgreen Historic House for significant periods, some for over 20 years, thus carrying on her commitment to honouring our local heritage.”
Curator 1978-2014
As Broadgreen Historic House curator from 1978-2014, Margaret Paul led the preservation and cataloguing of the historic collection and developed the heritage tourism service at Broadgreen. She also spent five years as a volunteer prior to that.
The chair of Broadgreen Society, Mary Gavin, remembers Margaret and her incredible influence on the development of Broadgreen Historic House.
“As the curator of Broadgreen Historic House Margaret had an unswerving commitment to preserving and communicating the unique history surrounding the House, its families and its artefacts,” says Mary.
“Margaret also had a strong sense of responsibility and accountability towards the donors of the Victorian and Edwardian textiles and artefacts which furnish the House and she was meticulous about researching and displaying them in an authentic setting. This is reflected in the attractive and accessible way that Broadgreen House is presented to the public today.
“Over forty years, Margaret trained more than 200 volunteer guides and empowered them to provide a well-informed heritage tourism service. Her legacy is that many of these guides continued to volunteer at Broadgreen Historic House for significant periods, some for over 20 years, thus carrying on her commitment to honouring our local heritage.”
Meet our volunteers
Coming soon!
Want to get involved?
Find out more about becoming a Broadgreen Historic House volunteer
Meet the Broadgreen Society The wonderful Broadgreen Society committee are all volunteers. They oversee the Broadgreen Centre, manage bookings for the Le Cren room community facility, look after Broadgreen guides and volunteers, run popular educational and holiday programmes and help with special events and projects. From left to right: Di Scott (Acting Secretary), Brian Ramsay (Chair), Diane Ramsay, Graeme Thomas (Treasurer), Brenda Challis and Jenny McKee. Absent: Deidre Tolerton. |
How it all began...
From 'Friends of Broadgreen' to 'Broadgreen Society'
The story begins in 1965 when the Friends of Broadgreen was formed to lobby Nelson City Council to buy the unique cob house and the surrounding grounds. When this was successful, the Council encouraged the Friends to continue as an advisory group, leading fundraising and working bees. Artefacts from the colonial period were sourced and were donated, gifted on long term loan or purchased. Tradesmen with unique skills in restoration were commissioned. By December 1967 Broadgreen Historic House was ready for public viewing and volunteers offered their time to guide tourists around the House.
As the interior restoration continued, volunteers also assisted the curatorial staff in exhibiting and conserving the artefacts and cataloguing the collection while others continued the endless fundraising. Friends of Broadgreen became formalised into the Broadgreen Society (Inc) in 1981.
During the 1980s, in addition to visitor guiding, volunteer roles expanded to data entry, marketing, school and holiday programmes, and the production of specially themed and popular public exhibitions. Annual Rose Day and Christmas Carols celebrations drew in the community. Talented members of the Committee published a history booklet, recorded self-guiding audio tours and produced souvenir postcards, all of which added value to the visitor experience.
Another high point in volunteer commitment came in the late 1990s when the Broadgreen Society, led by Dennis Le Cren and John Phillipps, raised $30,000 and sourced grants of $65,000 to build the Broadgreen Administration Centre - an ancillary building to accommodate staffing and storage needs and to provide a community meeting space. Local businesses and individuals donated goods, services and money to the project which was debt-free when it was opened in February 2000. Prior to this, the Curator and the Guides were using the Entry, the Butler’s Pantry and the upstairs Bathroom for day-to-day running of the Historic House, with priceless textiles stored under beds and in wardrobes. The new building included a temperature and humidity controlled costume and textile collection store.
In recent years, it is estimated that 5,000 hours of voluntary service annually is gifted to Broadgreen Historic House. The Broadgreen Society is very proud that this generous spirit of volunteering has allowed the Nelson’s very special heritage treasure to be shared with visitors locally, regionally and from around the world.
Mary Gavin QSO
Former Chairperson, Broadgreen Society