The Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum is a huge opportunity for GLAM institutions. At Auckland Museum we have two projects that we’re running around the new curriculum. While they take different approaches both leverage the trust that our institution has with our community, build on internal and external relationships, and take advantage of the gaps in local histories resources which teachers are calling for and our sector can provide. 

The first project is a curated platform, featuring multiple perspectives on a small number of collections items via video, text and imagery. This focuses on staff expertise and research into collections, and leverages relationships with donors, knowledge holders and mana whenua. 

The second project is our Wikipedia local history project which enhances Auckland suburb pages, using Museum research and open collection imagery, to create reliable and rich resources for teachers to use as starting points for teaching local history.

While both projects are externally funded, the main resource is staff time and expertise. We’re not building expensive bespoke digital products, but using off the shelf or already existing platforms.  Both projects have concept development, user research and project learnings which can be used as templates for other institutions.