Kia ora, welcome!

Antony Harris Head of Stamps and Collectables

We were proud to start off this year with two stamp issues commemorating the legacies of

New

Zealand authors.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the untimely passing of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the modernist period, and her experiences as a girl in turn-of-thecentury New Zealand come through many of her stories. We were delighted to commemorate her legacy in our first stamp issue of 2023.

An influential author of a different kind, Dame Lynley Dodd has created stories and illustrations cherished by multiple generations of New Zealanders. On 1 March, Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy was celebrated on a special stamp issue that puts a spotlight on each of the canine characters from Dame Lynley’s original children’s book.

Coins featuring the story’s hero will also be issued. These will be some of the last commemorative coins to feature Queen Elizabeth II on their obverse.

King Charles III succeeded Queen Elizabeth II immediately upon her passing on 8 September 2022. The King will be crowned in a formal ceremony on 6 May 2023, and to commemorate the occasion NZ Post will issue six commemorative coins on behalf of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. These coins will be among the first New Zealand legal tender coins to feature the King on the obverse. A stamp issue commemorating the King’s accession, which you can view on page 15, is planned for 3 May, and a special commemorative sheetlet featuring images from the coronation will be issued on Monday 8 May.

The cover of this issue of Focus features one of the beautiful artworks created by Wellington artist Rachel Walker for our Forest & Bird 100 Years stamp issue. Coincidentally, some of our historical bird-themed stamps recently featured in an art and photography exhibition at New Zealand Parliament. Waiata Manu (birdsong) explored the significance of birds (manu) in New Zealand culture, and the exhibition’s curator tells us more about her work on pages 8-9.

New Zealand has spent the past two decades building on its reputation as a great place to make movies, and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate the country’s innovation and creativity taking place here with Avatar: The Way of Water stamps and coins. New Zealand is the only producer of legal tender coins commemorating the second Avatar film.

Finally, we look back at our November stamp issue, Women in Science, with extracts from an article published in The New Zealand Collection 2022, authored by Rebecca Priestley and Kate Hannah. Rebecca is an academic, science historian and writer whose focus is on contemporary and historical science in Aotearoa, and Kate is a cultural historian who studies the cultures and subcultures of science and technology. Both Rebecca and Kate are researchers at Te Pūnaha Matatini, the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for complex systems. The stamps were design by Jo Bailey, a designer and design researcher at Massey University in Wellington.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Focus.

Antony Harris Head of Stamps and Collectables