Events

Lost Lives on the Goldfields

Speaker: Dr Charlotte King
5.30-6.30pm Wed 20 March 2024, Hocken Seminar Room

The discovery of gold at Tuapeka (Lawrence) in 1861 led to the rapid influx of people from across the globe to Otago. The lucky among them struck it rich, but many others succumbed to the harsh conditions of the goldfields and left few records about their lives behind them.

Bioarchaeologist Dr. Charlotte King will talk about the work she has been undertaking, looking at the lost burials of Otago’s goldminers and uncovering the stories hidden in their skeletons. She’ll talk about how evidence from the bones can help us understand the cosmopolitan nature of the goldfields, the rise and fall of people’s fortunes, and how healthy (or not) life in Otago was during the colonial period.

Dr. Charlotte King is a lecturer in the Department of Anatomy at University of Otago. She has been working with the Southern Cemeteries Archaeology Project since 2017 to help identify those lying in lost graves in Otago’s historic cemeteries. She is an expert in the chemical analysis of skeletal remains, and uses these techniques to reconstruct people’s lives (and deaths) in archaeological and forensic settings.

Laden tables, Savoy restaurant, 1930s. [E. A. Phillips?] photograph, P2023-006-018, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago

‘Establishment’

Play reading of ‘Establishment’ by Dr Emily Duncan
Date 2.00pm Saturday 20 April, 2024
Venue Hocken Library, 90 Anzac Ave, Dunedin
Tickets $20 per person

‘Establishment’ is a series of monologues and duologues that explore and celebrate a selection of 20th century food venues in Dunedin, and the people who dined and worked there. The project was funded by the Friends of the Hocken Collections Award 2023 and informed by Hocken Collections research.

The reading was greatly enjoyed by those who attended during the Dunedin Heritage Festival in October 2023 and we’ve been fielding requests for a repeat performance by those who missed out ever since.

All ticket proceeds will help to fund the next Friends of the Hocken Award. Thanks to our sponsor Graduate Women Otago for supporting this reading by Prospect Park Productions.