By Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Nina Finigan, Curator Manuscripts
Cast your mind back to March 2020 - when it felt like the world had changed forever and that life as we knew it was gone. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, March 2020 marked the moment our borders shut to the world when we entered our first lockdown…
Over 2 years on, and as we’ve become accustomed to this “new normal” in our own ways, it’s hard to remember just how strange and uprooting this moment was.
Not long after New Zealand’s first lockdown began, Auckland Museum initiated a crowd-sourced collecting project to ensure that the stories associated with this historic moment were not forgotten.
We put out the public call for material in April 2020 and received a huge number of offers ranging from lockdown diaries to photographs of empty streets and bread shelves; messages of solidarity written on banners to teddy bears placed in windows; examples of home-schooling and lockdown crafting to combat boredom and anxiety. After a lengthy selection process we ended up with 75 separate acquisitions, but many were made up of more individual items.
Here Nina Finigan, Curator Manuscripts, explores some of these stories and reflects on what they help us remember about that time…
Illustrated COVID-19 lockdown journalAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Illustrating the first lockdown
As we entered the first few days of lockdown, Phil Hickin had the foresight to begin an illustrated journal to chronical the uncertain days that lay ahead of us...
Illustrated COVID-19 lockdown journalAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
His journal takes us on a journey from the first day of lockdown on 28 March through to 11 May when the nation moved down to Alert Level 2.
Illustrated COVID-19 lockdown journalAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
An extraordinary visual reference of those early days, it contains reminders of daily occurrences or announcements that, in our state of profound separation and stillness, consumed much of our waking attention.
One of the most striking changes when we went into lockdown was the stillness: empty streets; empty skies above us; the eerie quietness of our usually bustling cities.
A picture is worth a thousand words
This image of Auckland’s normally clogged Northern Motorway taken during Level 4 by William McCartney conveys that stillness.
Although New Zealand’s borders have now reopened to the world, for the past 2 years entering the country required a 2-week stay in a government managed isolation facility. But in the days leading up the border closure in 2020, entering the country meant going into 14 days of self-isolation in your own home.
Alex Louise Hodgson - Quarantine Food Diary, 20 March - 2 April 2020Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Managing self-isolation at home
Like many others, Alex Hodgson was caught up in this swiftly changing environment - stuck in between initial, reactive responses and the structured support which came a few weeks later.
Alex Louise Hodgson - Quarantine Food Diary, 20 March - 2 April 2020Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Unable to go to the shops or get food delivered during level 4, food consumption became a pressing matter for Alex. In this food diary she records her supplies, what she has eaten and drunk and even her caloric intake.
Alex Louise Hodgson - Quarantine Food Diary, 20 March - 2 April 2020Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
It’s a reminder of the intense anxiety of the early days of the pandemic and how necessary government intervention was.
Although always contentious for some New Zealanders, Government Managed Isolation (MIQ) would eventually become a fairly well-oiled machine - over the 2 years it was in place more than 60,000 people went through the 32 facilities.
Managing Government Managed Isolation
To stave off boredom, quarantine-ers sought out creative ways to pass the time. Shelby Farmer video journalled and crafted her way through her stays at Isolation Facilities, even making herself rosettes from soft drink cans to mark particular milestones.
These rosettes illustrate the kinds of things people did to pass time and to give shape to unstructured days.
Fence PuppetAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Passing time in lockdown
Separation has remained an enduring presence for many of us throughout the pandemic, but it was never more profound than in those first few months. Within our shrunken worlds we sought ways to both pass the time and to reach out to those around us.
For Bo Hensly, the knitter of these fence puppets, what started as a personal craft project quickly became a means to foster community spirit during lockdown. As Bo says:
“I often had children run up to see what the next day's design was; children put in their requests for the next day's character; locals donated wool when I started running out of particular colours and numerous people made a detour on their local walks to see our fence."
The collection, which would grow to 43 puppets, became a real community collaboration.
School at home
Children were one of the groups most affected by lockdown - the challenge of remaining connected and engaged with schoolwork was felt keenly by children and parents alike.
This exercise book, dubbed “GO home book” by its 9 year-old creator, is illustrative of the those first few months of homeschooling - an experience which became a familiar, and for many an unwelcome and exhausting, presence over the following two years.
The experiences of children are not often found in museum collections, making it even more crucial that they were included in our Covid-19 collection.
"NO PATS" Cat Collar Tag (2020) by Sarah BishopAuckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira
Distancing from pets
Social distancing is now a part of our everyday lives as is a basic understanding of how the virus is spread and how to protect ourselves. However in the early days things weren’t so clear - there was anxiety about interactions of any kind, including via our pets.
This little paper sign was cellotaped to a cat’s collar, intended to strongly dissuade passersby from patting the cat for fear of transmission of the virus.
In late April 2020, as we moved from the strictness of Level 4 and into the slightly more relaxed Level 3, New Zealand began a slow process of reopening. In this less-restrictive environment, shops could open for click and collect providing they could maintain a 2 metre distance from their customers.
Some found inventive ways of adhering to this measure, like Time Out bookstore who used this pizza peel to pass books out to customers on the street.
Over 2 years later and the world keeps changing and Covid along with it. Much like books on a pizza peel, in Aotearoa New Zealand we are tentatively re-introducing ourselves to the world and the world to us. It feels good to be connected again, while remaining attentive and alert to the ongoing risks Covid-19 poses to our communities. Objects like the ones profiled in this piece serve as reminders of our early vigilance, sense of community spirit and concern for our fellow citizens.
We would like to thank the donors of these objects for helping us tell this story and committing it to Aotearoa’s recorded history.
Text: Nina Finigan, Curator Manuscripts
Thanks to all the donors who have agreed to make their objects available for this exhibition.
You can view the rest of the Museum's COVID-19 Pandemic Collection on Auckland Museum's Collections Online.
