Our final day in Helsinki was spent with Craig visiting the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum. The brochure notes it is 110 years since this place began to provide visitors a peek at life in days of yore in smoke cabins, Croft’s and manors. All the buildings have been brought in from various parts of Finland and it is described as, ‘rural Finland in miniature.’ So our time concluded with a special tea with the family, giving of gifts and viewing Craig’s 21st birthday video - we were there not long before we left Christchurch for Wellington. We train to the airport first thing tomorrow - Wed 21 August.
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Saturday saw us travel to Suomenlinna Island which is a 12 min. ferry trip from Helsinki towards the SE. We walked with the children from the train to the ferry passing the national Lutheran cathedral on the hill and over to the Orthodox Church which we entered with crowds of others - see pic.
Suomenlinna has been a defensive Island which was built initially by the Swedes when they controlled Finland in 1748. There was a lot going on in that decade - remember Culloden, Scotland and the battle of ‘45 which we will learn more about next month. The point is that this Island has been a primary defensive position for this region for a long time and continues to be lived by the military- we saw a big helicopter fly over as we were having an afternoon ice cream! While there was shared a picnic lunch at a playground, walked through a decommissioned WW2 submarine with a torpedo in the tube (defused I hope) and observed how cramped the conditions onboard were for the crew of 16. We Craig and I joined a guided tour with a well informed guide who ran through the Island’s history with the Swedes, then the Russians from about 1809 through the Crimean War when the French and British bombarded the Island from the Gulf of Finland in 1856 through to independence in 1918. The ferry trip over was full but it was cramped around 4 pm as we travelled back via ferry, tram and train to Huopalahti for tea. Sunday had us staying closer to home visiting the children’s favourite playground and visiting the local Lutheran Finnish speaking church - again see pic. In the evening we went for another walk into a local forest where we found and ate some small blueberries and enjoyed an evening wander through the neighbourhood. It was early Thursday night in Helsinki as we slept off 24 hours on the move. It is summer and the night was warm but good ventilation in Craig and Malin’s 3rd story apartment meant it was quite comfortable. Malin is a senior high school teacher at a very near by school (like 300m.) which is Swedish medium. While she is Finnish her mother tongue is Swedish - about 10% of people in Helsinki fall into this group. Once Malin left for school the rest of us did some serious LEGO building before boarding the train for Helsinki CBD where we spent about 4 hours at a national museum which has a bullet hole in the entrance doors - there from the time of the Revolution in 1918. We joined a group guided by a delightful man who introduced us to Finnish history via the exhibits from the Middle Ages through to the end of the 19th Century. We learned of the influence of Swedish and Russian occupations of the country sometimes benevolent and sometimes not. Sick of the Russians, Finland was somewhat supportive of Germany in the two World Wars of the 20th Century because the Russians were more the enemy. The pictures above capture some of the exhibits.
After a very pleasant lunch which included free beer! we ventured upstairs with the children to the educational play area. This was well conceived including the pictorial mural that ran the perimeter of the room recording the history of Finland. We spent most time building building with the rusty coloured bricks. Isn’t it so often the way that the most simple things capture the attention of children young and old. So come 3:30pm it was home on the train to Huoapalati (sp?) and a delicious food pulled pork meal that Malin had prepared. Followed by bed time prep with the children and discussion about what will happen in the next few days... before bed.
I, Terry, had an hour to myself this morning in Masterton, Wairarapa, NZ. I parked in the main street at the north end and on impulse was drawn to Aratoi - Wairarapa's Museum of Art and History. The current major exhibition is He Manawa Whenua: He Puna Wai - Water Way. This display of art via various media grew out of a journey by the artists to Canterbury to observe and discuss water use in that region. The exhibition came to Masterton after it had been staged in Ashburton, Mid Canterbury. As the image and video above demonstrates it, among other things, reflects on dairying and water issues. As the son of a dairy farmer who lived and worked on his father's dairy farm alongside the Manawatu R. south from Palmerston North near Opiki, I am sad at what's happened! In the1960's, while the effects of water degradation were beginning to appear e.g. effluent flowing downstream from the Longburn Freezing Works, eels, carp, flounder, etc. were plentiful in the river. With many I lament the intensification of dairying. Phil Dadson writes the following introduction to his AV presentation above, Moo Cow Blues: Moo Cow Blues! Dairy is HUGE in NZ. Returns to the NZ economy is HUGE. Here is another intriguing work in the Exhibition Water\Way exhibition at Aratoi, Masterton 13 April – 4 August, 2019
As we begin to develop this website I am reminded of the sonnet above written by John Keats in 1817.
As a beginning high school student in the mid 1960's I recall the sense of wonder that this writing engendered in me. I read it at the time in the context of also reading Homer's works - the Iliad and the Odyssey - as set readings for English. Living on a southern Manawatu dairy farm I was well aware of the night sky and the deep questions it posed for me like, "What does it all mean?" and "How far does it go?" and "Who or what is behind all this? The questions were always accompanied by a deep sense of awe, almost reverence, at the wonder of the creation. I welcome the integration into NZ social awareness of the Maori celebration of Matariki in the heart of winter. It makes a lot of sense to me to engage with wondering about the sky and the stars, as well as the other aspects of creation that Maori culture especially invites to do during this renaissance of appreciation for the traditions of tangata whenua In a way I have spent my life trying to unravel, as best I could, the mystery which is creation and by extrapolation for me, God. As an Anglican priest nearly 40 years on from my ordination I still am deeply moved by the reading of this poem which invites us to identify with Homer and Chapman and Cortez the explorer of the Americas. They like me, and perhaps you, enjoyed exploring and the thrill of discovery. For me to engage in the research and study of one's family history and story, our whakapapa, is a noble and lifegiving thing to do. I hope, as it develops, that this website will become an engaging place for you because it touches the deep place within you which is the story of our families. Terry Alve |
AuthorMargaret & Terry Alve live in Tawa, NZ. Between them they are linked to several families from the UK and Germany who emigrated to Tasmania and Aotearoa-New Zealand between 1850 and 1925. Archives
December 2022
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