Heritage Values - Historic Cemeteries Conversation Trust of New Zealand

WHY CEMETERIES MATTER

The value of cemeteries
Gardeners like cemeteries because of the rare bulbs and old-fashioned “heritage” roses found lurking among the monuments. Historians like them for the critical scraps of biographical information, or references to accidental deaths and local epidemics. Botanists love the patches of rare native species or plant associations they protect.

Artists and photographers love the association of fine arts and wild nature, the detailed sculpture against the unclipped hedge. Bird-watchers, family historians, book-readers, and landscape architects all want to visit cemeteries for their own selfish ends.

Most importantly, cemeteries are an integral part of the local area and tell a great deal about its past history. Unlike most other histories, they record the lives of all of the past community, rich and poor alike and they reflect every period in equal detail. By showing how the area grew, they show its place in national development.

How cemeteries reflect their community
Cemeteries vary to reflect the local community far more than people imagine.

The choice of indigenous or European trees generally reflects what is growing in the main street and Central Park. The number (and age) of celtic crosses relates to whether (and when) the area was a focus of Irish immigration. A group of larger monuments may represent a period of high wool prices, or the town’s mining heyday; a group of children’s graves, a long-forgotten epidemic. The biblical texts on many old graves reflects the prevalent mood of optimism, pessimism, or simple stoic resignation.

Other aspects may be rather less obvious. Sometimes, a large number of unmarked graves represents economic depression, elsewhere a transient population. A large cemetery with few graves may indicate a mining venture that failed, or it may result from a new bridge that gave the town access to a prettier cemetery. A large number of marble headstones may represent prosperity or it may reflect the period when a marble pit operated nearby.

The landscaping of a cemetery, like the area allocated, often is related more to the expectations of the early settlers than to subsequent history. Layout may also show the strength of divisions within society. In some country cemeteries the different denominational Sections are hard to distinguish, but in other areas there are picket fences and treelines, and burials in opposite corners to prevent fraternisation, even in death.

These are just a few examples of how cemeteries represent a community and its history.

WHY ARE CEMETERIES IMPORTANT?

…to families and friends

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To immediate descendents, they are important as a place of focus where you can talk and establish a connection with your predecessors.
To family researchers and genealogists, as sources of information on the immediate and greater family. Monumental inscriptions are of such great value to genealogists that their transcription has been seen as urgent in view of their gradual disappearance through age and neglect.

…to the local community
In New Zealand today the value of cemeteries as repositories of history is not widely recognised by local communities. As we New Zealanders gain a greater sense of history as a nation we believe this attitude will change.
It seems that the popular view of cemeteries is ‘a place best left alone – what good can it do you consorting with the dead’. But it has not always been this way in times gone by and we believe that it may not always be so in the future

. …in local history
As a resource for chronological information gained from: names, dates, causes of death, architectural influences, epitaphs.
There is a great wealth of information about community origins residing in all our historic cemeteries which is waiting to be written down and analysed to offer insights into our past.

…as a contribution to national colonial history
Analysis of cemetery information can provide a unique source of our Nationhood and the origins of our history in New Zealand.

…as a reflection of past society
As a record of:
Ethnic history of communities, for example Chinese, Jewish, Lebanese.
War history especially The Great War, and WW2.
Demographics, population changes, deaths of women, and children, and social disasters.
Medical history, where perhaps the value is higher in 19th century cemeteries when death records were incomplete.

..…for historical architecture
As a repository of history about the people who crafted the gravestones.
The memorials – the words they used and the messages they wrote tell us much about their thinking.
The materials used give further indications of the sort of people that were our ancestors.
The variations in style through the ages forms a wonderful and rich study in seriation.
The evidence of craftsmanship through the ages is on show for all to see and wonder at in your local cemetery.

Cemeteries are like open history books, with tablets of stone forming the pages. Historians research cemetery records and remaining grave sites, as often they are the only officially recorded information about an area and the people who settled there.

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People

Cemeteries tell us about the cultural and ethnic background of people, their occupations, how long they lived, and sometimes the cause of their death. They provide us with insights into cultural practices and beliefs of days gone by.

Art

Some grave sites are simple, a slab of wood, or a carved piece of stone, with a name and a date scratched on it – others are elaborate sculptures – works of art and architecture.

History

Unlike most other histories, cemeteries record the lives of all, whether rich or poor, famous or infamous – affirmation of our final and common destiny. Cemeteries provide a valuable historical database.

History Culture

Artefacts establish patterns of communication with those who use or view them. When we pause to consider the objects produced by the people of a culture we are hearing the voices of that culture. Cemeteries, over time, do come to assume as one of their many functions, the mantle of ‘repository of cultural artefacts’. Every community has one at its doorstep.

Historic landscapes

Cemeteries are central components or remnants of former cultural historical landscapes. They enjoyed a former position in a community which related to patterns of earlier settlements which may have been transformed or even lost.

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There is a lack of general community support for the upkeep and preservation of cemeteries. We believe that this is largely the result of a lack of appreciation on the part of the community. Our success will be measured by our ability to raise the historical consciousness of the public towards the need for conservation of historic cemeteries. It will of course be more difficult to stop senseless acts of vandalism and grave desecration. If we show we care for our cemeteries then perhaps they will not be so prone to vandalism.

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The Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust of New Zealand has identified the following objectives:

To co-operate with local authority structures and systems to promote the values of historic cemeteries. Partnership agreements with the local council or cemetery trust is a good start.
To work with appropriate national agencies such as NZ Historic Places Trust, NZ Master Monumental Masons Association (Inc), Ministry of Culture and Heritage, to achieve common goals.
To seek grants for research into the social history of cemeteries and encourage academic research by university students and high schools into social aspects of cemetery history.
To encourage the preparation of conservation plans for historic cemeteries.
To initiate effective and user-friendly information for tracing deceased relatives’ graves, with a standard system for locating plots.
To encourage children of all ages to examine the history and inscribed databases residing in our cemeteries.
To produce information to assist family members who want to conserve a grave site.
To establish Friends of New Zealand Cemeteries groups throughout New Zealand to create awareness of the importance of local cemeteries and their conservation.

There is an urgent continuing need to promote the physical conservation of historic cemeteries, and we aim to provide useful guidelines and promote the conservation values for all of New Zealand’s historic cemeteries and burial sites.

To this end we will:

Develop a policy on preparation of conservation plans.
Formulate a standard ‘Cemetery Conservation Plan Guidelines’ for use by interested individuals and groups.
Focus on our most urgent cemetery sites and commission conservation plans in consultation with local councils and local citizens and then seek funding for their implementation.
Encourage participation by service clubs and other interested groups in the task of conserving cemetery sites and enhancing access to those sites.
Assist in setting conservation goals and priorities with the various local community groups and local bodies.
Assist in the securing of funding resources from trusts and sympathetic organisations to assist with cemetery conservation projects.

The Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust of New Zealand is endorsed by The New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the Master Monumental Masons Association.

More information

Should you require more information on the Trust or be interested in furthering the work of the Trust please contact:

The Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust of New Zealand
Stewart Harvey - Trust Chairman
65 Every Street, Dunedin
Phone 03 454 5384
Email stewarth@orcon.net.nz

WHY ARE CEMETERIES IMPORTANT?	HOW DO WE PROPOSE TO CONSERVE OUR CEMETERIES?	ASSESSING HERITAGE VALUES

WE PROTECT WHAT WE VALUE		THE FUTURE OF OUR CEMETERIES