Social studies teacher Kyle Webb with his dog Huxley at the war memorial education centre, with the carillon bell tower behind them. Photo: RNZ / Phil Pennington
Two historians who teach thousands of children about the New Zealand Wars, Gallipoli and Vietnam are losing their jobs at the nation's war memorial education centre.
Their positions will be disestablished in December, according to official internal documents. Schools will get lessons at the education centre at Pukeahu in Wellington until then.
The role of the country's sole carillonist, who plays the bells at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, is also being cut after Anzac Day.
Adrianne McAllister, the principal of Mt Cook School, next door to Pukeahu, said the loss of the historians was "devastating".
"It's just going to be really, really sad."
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has refused to talk about the cuts to RNZ, while it carries out a restructure sparked by the public sector cuts.
"Our education programme will continue to be delivered to the end of this school year, then we will be looking at our options," it said.
It did not outline any of those options.
It also refused RNZ's request to visit the centre near the Basin Reserve.
"We decline your requests to attend our school visits or talk to any ministry staff at Pukeahu," it said.
'Not feasible'
Pukeahu has had millions of dollars spent on it. This has not insulated it from the public sector cuts - the Ministry for Culture and Heritage is stopping all activities at Pukeahu not directly related to commemorations.
It was "not feasible" to carry on, its internal report said. It is also cutting back on other historians, and their work on online history sources such as Te Ara.
The education centre started a century ago as the creche for Suzanne Aubert's sisters of compassion. Gifted to Queen Elizabeth for her 90th birthday a decade ago, it was then staffed and equipped to serve schools.
It is not clear if Buckingham Palace should be told about any changes if it stopped doing that.
In its first year, 12,000 children had lessons, inside and outside among the monuments.
"We use them all the time for all sorts of things," said McAllister.
"Ricky [Prebble] and the team up there were really amazing at adapting everything ... really high, complex thinking to small five year olds."
Children had just got back from stencilling insects - the centre covered local history and ecology, as well as the wars - and three more classes were due to go up before December, she said.
Wellington High School teacher Kyle Webb had brought 50 lots of Year 9s and 10s to see Prebble this year.
"We bring our classes down and Ricky takes over and students get to understand and like, walk through these statues and these sculptures," said Webb, as he wandered among the columns of the Australian memorial, and giant conch shell that marks the Pacific Islands Memorial.
'You need somebody to take over' Shelford
When the education centre opened in 2016, the National government said: "Its importance to the legacy of Pukeahu for our young people makes it a particularly fitting gift for Her Majesty."
Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith's office said this week that the cuts were an "operational" matter for the ministry.
"We're operating in a tight fiscal environment and tough decisions had to be made," Goldsmith said in a two-line statement, when asked by RNZ if he would intervene over the carillon or education centre.
"Our priority in the arts was to maintain grants available to the sector."
The bell tower is the centrepiece of Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Phil Pennington
Sir Wayne 'Buck' Shelford is on the war memorial advisory committee.
"It's a nice centre," he said.
"But if they are going to get rid of them, what are they going to do in regards to the history that these guys carry in their heads?
"Do you need to download it and basically put it into the education system?
"That's the whole thing. You know, you need somebody to take over or something to take over."
'They haven't been in touch'
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage refused to let RNZ talk to the historians, saying it would be "inappropriate and insensitive".
Its internal document said disestablishing the jobs in December "will allow for the completion of the already scheduled programming and exploration of alternatives for the future of the education programme, noting that the education curriculum is the mandate of the Ministry of Education".
But the Education Ministry said it had not been approached about Pukeahu's future.
"While we support history education across schools, the design and delivery of this particular programme remains the responsibility of MCH," it told RNZ.
"We're available for a conversation if MCH wishes to talk with us."
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage told RNZ it was in communication with schools about programming.
This was news to McAllister. "They haven't been in touch with me," she said.
She learned about the pending change from RNZ.
"The majority of our kids... are English as second-language learners... and engaging with Ricky and his team just gave them an insight on New Zealand history," she said.
"It's really sad that we're not going to have that on our back doorstep."
Webb - standing outside the education centre - said the historians were the front-line that the public sector cuts should not touch.
"As junior social studies I came down with our new units preparing for the the new curriculum that was supposed to drop and framing it up and being like, 'Hey, Ricky, here's what we kind of got on the table. Where do you see you fitting in?'
"And Ricky's like, 'Oh, we can do a lesson over this, we can come down and we'll do this', which is why we come down so often."
If schools could not visit in person, lessons were done online, Webb added.
'You need historians who know the wars'
The government cut the Ministry for Culture and Heritage's funding by $8 million over four years in this year's Budget.
"Activation and non-commemoration-related engagement activity at Pukeahu will no longer be delivered by the ministry," secretary Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae wrote in his decision document on restructuring in July.
More than two dozen jobs are going.
Leauanae planned to hire a new senior adviser of operations at Pukeahu to meet "legislative obligations" around reopening and running of the memorial and carillon.
The job description for that new role did not mention education.
Shelford expressed disappointment over this.
"Don't you think it's important that you need historians who know the wars?
"This is our history that you're talking about rather than actually learning the history of other countries."
As for rationing the ringing of the carillon bells - the ministry has committed only to hearing them on Anzac Days - Shelford said:
"I think it would be disappointing to have such a thing in New Zealand that can't be played and yet you're spending millions of dollars fixing it up to make it work."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
