9 Sep 2020

Ngā Taonga Sound Archives: Elephants in Aotearoa

From Afternoons, 1:41 pm on 9 September 2020

In today’s visit to the sound archives, Sarah Johnston from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision will take us back as far as 1870 and memories of the first elephants seen in Aotearoa – and to a time when elephant races were held in the streets of provincial New Zealand towns.

Bullen's circus elephants walking down a street in Wellington, 1958 ATL1958 [Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library]

Jamuna and her keepr at Auckland Zoo.[Courtesy Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections]

Duke of Edinburgh's elephant in Queen St. 13 Dec 1870 [Courtesy Papers Past]

NZ Herald 9 Dec 1870 [Courtesy Papers Past]

Chainsaw sculpture of Humphrey the elephant seal [courtesy The Katikati Advertiser]