Pretty cool seeing my photo on the wall at the Ashburton Art Gallery on 22nd March 2026 with a red ribbon, apart from a social media competition, this is my first photography award. The photo was taken on my phone, and edited with a free app, Snapseed... just to show that you dont need fancy gear to be able to contribute to exhibitions like this. Everyone can help document and celebrate our built heritage.
Five years ago, I knew very little about built heritage. Last night, Chris and I drove home from Ashburton with a heritage photography award, and I found myself thinking about how much can grow from simple curiosity.
I’m still a little bit stunned, to be honest.
Chris and I went up to Ashburton last night for the opening of Documenting Our Heritage: Mid and South Canterbury at Rokowhiria Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum, and I was lucky enough to win the Mid and South Canterbury section of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga’s 2026 photography competition.
I entered because I wanted to help in a practical way. I liked the idea of contributing updated heritage images for Heritage New Zealand’s website while also celebrating the built heritage of our region. I honestly did not expect to win, so the whole evening felt very special...
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga 2026 Screenshot homepage 2026
I also want to say a big congratulations to everyone who entered, and a heartfelt thank you to everyone who sponsored, supported, and helped bring the exhibition together. It was such a positive celebration of heritage, and I felt very lucky to be part of it.
What meant the most to me, though, was not the award itself. It was being in a room full of people who care about heritage. People who notice places. People who understand that buildings are never just buildings. They hold work, memory, ambition, change, hardship, pride, and identity.
For me, the evening also made me reflect on how this whole heritage journey began.
Screen shot of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga website where people can search of heritage properties. As of 2026 there were 16 properties listed at a Historic Place Category 1, 109 category 2, and 2 results for Wāhi Tūpuna/Tīpuna
I did not come to built heritage through formal study or institutional knowledge. I came to it through curiosity. Over the last five years, I have slowly taught myself by reading the Heritage New Zealand website, exploring the New Zealand Heritage List, and trying to understand why certain places are important enough to be recognised and protected.
At the start, I was simply asking questions...
- Why this building?
- Why does it matter?
- Who decides?
- What story does it hold?
The more I read, the more I realised this was not just about old buildings. It was about people, memory, change over time, and the way places help us understand who we are. Built heritage links us to the past, but it also shapes the way we see our towns in the present.
That learning deepened when Philip Brownie generously shared his heritage buildings archive with me. That was a real gift. It added another layer to what I was learning and helped me better understand Timaru’s built history.
Out of that interest came a volunteer project for WuHoo Timaru. I started working on a heritage hunt because I wanted to create something that might encourage people to look up, notice more, and connect with the stories around them. I wanted heritage to feel interesting and approachable, not like something reserved for specialists.
Then, when I found out Timaru District Council was working on a heritage review and updated heritage documents, I put the project on hold. I wanted to wait until the newer reports were available, then go back, compare them with my own research, and update the hunt properly.
That process taught me a lot too. It helped me understand more clearly why heritage buildings are identified and why people think they are important enough to protect.
For me, that was a turning point.
It made me realise that heritage is not about being the heritage police. It is not about freezing a town in time or keeping it stuck in the past. Towns grow and change. They always have. What matters is making sure change is thoughtful, and that we do not lose the stories and places that help make a town what it is.
And that leads me to the building I photographed.
I chose it because I have been learning more about Timaru’s timeline and the milestones that shaped who we are today. As I did that, I began to look differently at the enormous grain stores and silos on our shoreline. Some are still in use, some are no longer active, but together they link us back to an important part of South Canterbury’s story, when this region was known as the food bowl of the country.
In 1912, South Canterbury was at the peak of cropping, with vast areas of wheat and root crops under cultivation. That agricultural success shaped the district in all sorts of ways. Once I started reading more about the grain years, those buildings stopped being just big industrial forms on the skyline. They became evidence. They became story-holders.
They tell us something about our geography, our economy, our farming story, and our people. They help explain why Timaru developed the way it did. They help explain the prosperity that flowed through the region.
And that prosperity did not stay in the paddocks. It flowed into the wider development of Timaru and South Canterbury. It supported growth in the CBD, helped shape our built heritage, and even contributed to the conditions that supported arts and culture in the region. To me, that is part of why our local arts story is so strong too.
After those boom years came much harder times. World War I, the Wall Street Crash, and the Great Depression all affected agricultural prices and earnings. Once you understand those shifts, the buildings begin to tell a much bigger story, not only about prosperity, but also about vulnerability, resilience, and change.
Now I realise these buildings are much more than aesthetic facades. They are critical links to moments that shaped who we have been, and who we have become.
That is also why I have become so grateful for the work of local heritage groups.
I joined the Timaru Civic Trust in 2024 because I wanted to support a group with a long record of practical heritage action. The Trust has such an important story of its own. It was established to save the Timaru Landing Services Building from being demolished for a car park. The Trust bought the building from council for $1, then fundraised and project managed its redevelopment.
I love that story because it shows what heritage advocacy can look like when people care enough to act.
The Civic Trust continues to support projects that help heritage stay visible and relevant, including Blue Plaques, public storytelling, and heritage-linked activity in the CBD. It also reflects a long local legacy of people who have stepped up to protect important buildings and stories.
That is one of the reasons I care so much about place-based storytelling.
I would really love to see more of it in our CBD and across the wider region. So many people walk past significant places every day without knowing the stories attached to them. If we can help people learn what happened there, who shaped those places, and why they still matter, heritage becomes much more personal.
I have already started trying this through a display in the old Red Cross window and another at The Oxford, and I would love to do more. I just need to find the right spaces and gain permission from property owners. I think there is huge potential there. When people can encounter a story where they are already walking, shopping, working, or meeting friends, heritage feels alive. It becomes part of everyday life rather than something tucked away in a report.
And that is also why I think it is so important that heritage buildings are allowed to stay useful.
For heritage buildings to stay relevant, they often need to be able to be repurposed. Caring about heritage is not about wanting everything to stay exactly the same forever. It is about helping important buildings keep contributing to community life in new ways.
We are seeing some encouraging examples of that in and around Timaru. We have seen investment in the Empire Hotel apartments, new life being brought into the Union Bank for office use, care and presentation being given to places like the former Customhouse, the Oxford Building reaching its 100th year, the Aigantighe being strengthened and restored so the public can continue to enjoy more of its permanent collection, and the revitalisation of Timaru’s grand Theatre Royal, which is going to make a real difference to how we gather, perform, and experience culture in our region.
Those projects show that heritage buildings can still have a strong and useful future.
We are very lucky in Mid and South Canterbury to have a legacy of volunteers, organisations, and property owners who continue to champion built heritage. Without people willing to invest in these places, advocate for them, care for them, and find new uses for them, many of these buildings would not still be part of our everyday lives.
That gratitude extends beyond Timaru too.
This summer, Chris and I picked up two heritage brochures from the Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum and did the Ashburton heritage building trail. I had not really taken the time before to properly notice Ashburton’s heritage buildings, so it was such a good introduction.
That heritage trail helped me slow down, look more closely, and appreciate the stories held in those places.
It also reminded me that often all people need is an invitation to start noticing.
Once you have a brochure in your hand and a reason to look up, the town starts to open up differently.
So I really do think Ashburton’s heritage community is doing fantastic work. The brochures, the trail, the exhibition, and the wider effort to help people engage with heritage all make a real difference. They create an entry point for people like me, who may not know the full history at first, but are willing to learn.
I would also really encourage people to support both the Timaru Civic Trust and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
If people want to see more heritage celebrated, more stories told, more Blue Plaques installed, and more thoughtful projects happening in our CBD, joining the Timaru Civic Trust is a very practical way to help make that happen.
And if people want to support heritage nationally, there are practical ways to do that too. People can become members of Heritage New Zealand, donate, volunteer, visit heritage places, subscribe to their newsletter, and keep engaging with the stories they share.
I’m really grateful for the role Heritage New Zealand has played in my own journey. Their public resources helped me learn, but they also reminded me that heritage is something ordinary people can actively support.
I think that is probably the heart of what I want to say.
You do not have to be an expert to become a supporter of heritage.
You can begin with curiosity.
You can start by reading.
You can ask questions.
You can look more closely.
You can share what you learn.
You can celebrate places.
You can help other people notice them too.
Chris and I came home from Ashburton last night feeling very grateful. Grateful for the award, yes, but even more grateful for the reminder that heritage matters, and that there are so many people quietly doing the work of protecting, recording, celebrating, restoring, interpreting, and sharing it.
I’m still learning, and I really do see myself as building on the knowledge and effort of others. But I hope, in some small way, that this encourages more people to start looking up at the buildings around them and asking questions.
Because once you start, you really do see your town differently.
Side Quest: What are the category rankings on Heritage New Zealand list?
On the Heritage New Zealand list, not everything is actually “ranked” in the way people often imagine. The main thing that carries a formal ranking is a Historic Place and those are divided into Category 1 and Category 2.
Category 1 is the higher ranking. It means a place is considered to have special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value. These are the places with exceptional importance.
Category 2 still matters very much. It means a place has historical or cultural heritage significance or value, but not at the “special or outstanding” threshold used for Category 1.
That is the part people usually mean when they ask about heritage rankings.
But the side quest got more interesting, because the Heritage List is actually broader than just those two categories. Heritage New Zealand’s official list includes Historic Places, Historic Areas, Wāhi Tūpuna, Wāhi Tapu, Wāhi Tapu Areas, and National Historic Landmarks. Those are better understood as different types of heritage recognition, not a simple ladder from least to most important.
So the useful takeaway is this:
If you are talking about a building or place, the “ranking” is usually:
Category 1 = special or outstanding
Category 2 = significant
But if you are talking about the full Heritage New Zealand system, it is not just a ranking table. It is a way of recognising different kinds of heritage, including grouped places, ancestral places, sacred places, and places of national landmark status.
A more recent development since my history hunting a few years ago, is the Māori heritage category.
For Māori heritage, the List does not use Category 1 and Category 2 in the same way it does for historic places. Instead, Māori heritage is recognised through three distinct types:
Wāhi Tūpuna
These are places of ancestral significance for Māori. They matter because of the connection to tūpuna, whakapapa, tribal history, and identity.
Wāhi Tapu
These are places sacred to Māori in the traditional, spiritual, ritual, or mythological sense. In other words, their importance is not simply historical. It is also cultural and spiritual.
Wāhi Tapu Area
These are wider areas that contain one or more wāhi tapu. This recognises that significance can sit not only in one exact spot, but across a broader landscape or setting.
What I found especially important is why Heritage New Zealand uses these categories. Their own wording says Māori heritage is recognised on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero through wāhi tapu, wāhi tapu areas and wāhi tūpuna, and that recognition is a way to actively care for Māori heritage while supporting the rangatiratanga of hapū and iwi over their sacred and ancestral places.
That makes this quite different from the “ranking” idea people often have in mind.
So the takeaway is this:
For general built heritage, people often talk about Category 1 and Category 2.
For Māori heritage, the system is not really a ranking system. It is a framework for recognising different kinds of significance: ancestral, sacred, and sacred landscape or area based significance.
There is another important layer to keep in mind too... Heritage New Zealand says the listing process can help whānau, hapū, or iwi express their mana and knowledge about a place, and the reports produced through the process can support records, education, planning, funding applications, court evidence, and Treaty related work.
So in plain language, the Māori category is there not to squeeze Māori heritage into a colonial style ranking table, but to recognise places in ways that better reflect Māori values, relationships, and authority.
Side Quest: Timaru District Category 1 entries from the Heritage New Zealand
Useful links
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
https://www.heritage.org.nz/
Documenting Our Heritage: Mid and South Canterbury
https://www.heritage.org.nz/news/stories/documenting-our-heritage-mid-and-south-canterbury
Heritage New Zealand membership
https://heritage-nextjs-frontend.vercel.app/membership
Heritage New Zealand donate and volunteer
https://www.heritage.org.nz/donate
Ashburton District Council heritage and cultural walks
https://www.ashburtondc.govt.nz/community-facilities/arts%2C-culture-and-heritage/heritage-and-cultural-walks
Ashburton heritage walks launch story
https://www.ashburtondc.govt.nz/news/2025-news/walk-this-way-to-see-our-heritage-and-culture
Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum
https://ashburtonartgallery.org.nz/
Ashburton Museum exhibition listing
https://ashburtonmuseum.co.nz/event/documenting-our-heritage-mid-south-canterbury/
Arts Canterbury competition listing
https://www.artscanterbury.org.nz/events/documenting-our-heritage-mid-and-south-canterbury-photo-competition-ashburton-gallery/
Timaru Civic Trust
https://www.timarucivictrust.co.nz/
Timaru Civic Trust About Us
https://www.timarucivictrust.co.nz/about-us.html
Timaru Civic Trust Blue Plaques
https://www.timarucivictrust.co.nz/blue-plaques.html
Historic Places Aotearoa South Island Blue Plaques
https://www.blueplaques.nz/blue-plaques/south-island
WuHoo Timaru heritage hunt example
https://wuhootimaru.co.nz/cbd-heritage-hunt/498-who-lived-here