CANTERBURY

Canterbury Heritage Awards big win

The Box 112 Canterbury Heritage Awards, held on 11 June 2021 in Christ’s College Dining Hall, were a sold-out celebration of saved, restored, cultural and future heritage honouring nine winners across six categories.

WRITER: Rosemary Baird IMAGE: Canterbury Heritage Awards

It was an evening of especial delight for our staff at the Canterbury Heritage Awards as the transformation of Kate and Walter Sheppard’s 1888 kauri villa won both the Outstanding Contribution to Heritage Award and the Supreme Heritage Award. Purchased in 2019, Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House is now a visitor destination celebrating Kate Sheppard’s life and achievements, the suffrage movement and its legacy of social change, with the rear rooms of the house adapted as spaces for public education and gatherings. “We feel privileged to care for this place and spent a lot of time developing an exhibition that would balance respect for the heritage fabric with inclusive and engaging interpretation,” says Manager Heritage Assets South, Christine Whybrew. “To be recognised in this way is very humbling.” The widening of the awards to include the entire Canterbury region resulted in an exciting range of winners. The Seismic Award was won by the spectacular Sacred Heart Basilica in Timaru, now strengthened using innovative technology and techniques. Joint winner of the Public Realm Saved and Restored Award went to the Balmoral Fire Lookout. The Hawarden Waikari Lions Club restored this structure – the only remaining timber fire lookout in Aotearoa – as their local community project. The building and site are now open to the public. Christchurch’s already beloved new central library, Tūranga, received the Future Heritage Award and the murals at the Awaroa/Godley Head Coastal Defence Site and Riverside Market both received awards under the Heritage Tourism category. Other notable category winners included on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero were Montrose Station Homestead (Category 2), the Awaroa/Godley Head Coastal Defence Site (Historic Area) and Arts Centre School of Art building (Category 1). “Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga is proud to be a sponsor and keen supporter of these significant awards,” says Director Southern Region, Sheila Watson. “We love seeing other heritage owners who we have supported being recognised.” These biennial awards are a vital way to applaud and admire all those people who give so much to keep alive the region’s heritage. As Dame Anna Crighton, Chair of the Canterbury Heritage Awards 2021, puts it, “They are the heritage heroes, for individually and collectively, they have contributed to our cultural past with seminal tangible reminders.”n