Last week we posted on how Otago handled the Influenza epidemic of 1918. This week, as New Zealand moves into lockdown due to Covid-19, Dr. Peter Petchey tells us what isolation meant to the European colonial settlers of NZ. As we all go into four weeks of social isolation it will be the greatest change … Continue reading Isolation in the colonial period
As we write this blog post our country is just beginning to feel the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. This kind of pandemic is relatively rare in modern society... but the colonial settlers of Dunedin knew all about it. In this blog post we're exploring how our forebears dealt with concerns over disease spread. We … Continue reading Pandemics in the Past
Visiting a Chinese Camp Part 5 Today Les and Maisie conclude their tales of the Lawrence Chinese Camp by taking us into the darker underbelly of the nightlife - the camp's opium den. As with all of the other Chinese Camp posts, the broken English is deliberate and reflects spoken Chinese. We obtained flasks of … Continue reading Chinese Whispers: The darker side of the Lawrence nightlife
Visiting a Chinese Camp Part 4 Today we rejoin Les and Maisie Wong's visitors to the Lawrence Chinese camp, as they enjoy a meal with their hosts and are introduced to the camp's nightlife... Heading towards Ah Bok’s, we noticed Missy struggling with a pail of water. She said she was getting water from the … Continue reading Chinese Whispers: The Lawrence Chinese camp’s nightlife
Visiting a Chinese Camp (part 3) Today Les and Maisie Wong continue their trip back in time with the Chinese on the goldfields. Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of their story, and then join us as we explore the store and the Joss house in the camp... After ‘Charlie’ had departed we … Continue reading Chinese Whispers: The Chinese store and Joss house
This story is a tale of research woes. We like to pretend everything goes to plan in our studies, but sometimes the archaeology doesn't want to play along... Lead is a really important element in human history. Very early on we realised that it was a useful metal for us, it was nice and soft … Continue reading Lead astray by burial practices
Visiting a Chinese Camp Part 2. Today Les and Maisie Wong continue their trip back in time to the Lawrence Chinese Camp, bringing to life the stories of the Chinese on the goldfields... Sleeping in the loft was not without its problems. Apart from being unfamiliar with sleeping on bales of straw there was the … Continue reading Chinese Whispers: Making a fortune on the goldfields?
