FEATURE INTERVIEW
Senior Heritage Assessment Advisor Kerryn Pollock With a passion for research, working on new ways to view and record heritage is a dream role for Kerryn. Instrumental in developing the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Rainbow List, Kerryn reflects on the importance of recognising and honouring culturally historic places. WORDS: John O'Hare Tell us about your role at HNZPT. What are some of the things you do on any given day? I am a Senior Heritage Assessment Advisor, which is a rather formal way of saying I tell, and look after, the stories of the places on Rārangi Kōrero, the New Zealand Heritage List. It’s a job of two major parts: looking after existing List entries by making sure the technical information is up to date and writing short historical narratives and heritage assessments for older listings that don’t have these due to changing information requirements (of which there are many; we are in eternal catch-up mode); and, secondly, shepherding nominations for new listings through the rigorous process. That’s when we get to immerse ourselves in research, thinking and writing. A typical day or week might see me off to the National Library or Archives New Zealand to do some research, talking to individuals and communities who have special knowledge about a place, answering public enquiries about listed places or giving advice on a potential nomination, and writing some authorative prose that utterly nails why something is a heritage place. There’s bound to be a bit of administration thrown in – listing is very processdriven, and we document all the steps and keep interested people, organisations and property owners informed. 12
Heritage Quarterly
Tell us about your work with the Rainbow List Project and why it is such an important initiative. What has been one of the high points of this project for you? This is a passion project and I am so grateful that it’s part of my day job! The aim of the Rainbow List Project exists to improve the recognition of queer history in the New Zealand Heritage List. Our listing policy says the List is the “national statutory record of our rich and diverse place-based historical and cultural heritage” and there’s definitely room for improvement in the richness and diversity components contained in this statement. It is aspirational, especially when it comes to establishing which communities and histories are represented. Cultural records like heritage lists are a product of their time. They reflect the biases, power structures and priorities of the society in which they are created and thus have gaps. In the case of queer history, there’s the enormous impact of the historical illegality of male homosexuality, and how colonisation smothered fluid Māori sexualities, to consider. Addressing this requires active intervention by us. I am aware there are other gaps in the List but this is one that I am personally well-placed to deal with. The Rainbow List Project has great potential to be a model for other topic areas where representation is lacking. HŌTOKE • WINTER 2022
