“There is a whakataukī/proverb)that says ‘ka mua, ka muri - walking backwards into the future.’ It’s the idea that you need to look to the past to inform the future.”
– Lise, Volunteer and Board Member
Do you love history and story-telling? Are you passionate about collecting, preserving and presenting the stories of our ancestors for people today and for future generations? Would you like to learn new skills and work with like-minded people? Do you want to make a positive difference in your community?
The Treasury is a national treasure, largely volunteer run, dedicated to collecting, archiving, indexing, cataloguing and digitising the history of the people, the businesses and the organisations of Te Tara o Te Ika a Māui.
The Treasury attracts volunteers of all ages and backgrounds and is a fantastic way to forge a deeper connection with your and/or the district’s ancestry, and with the local community.
In July 2021 The Treasury commenced a major project: Toward the Future: Preserving the Past – The Treasury Collection Management Project, which is supported by at least seven funders and local bodies. Right now is a perfect time for you to join us to contribute to this important project, currently spanning at least two years. Regardless of the number of hours you have available to volunteer, please come and share your existing skills and learn new ones. Come and contribute to the deep dive into The Treasury’s Archive so that the stories held within that safe space can be reached by the world.
“I do it because I love it and I love the stories and I’m proud. I just love heritage. I’m passionate about the younger generations getting an understanding of what has gone before them and I think that is what The Treasury is here for and is helping to do.”
– Sandy, Volunteer, The Treasury True Tales book sales representative
Supported by a small team of paid staff, our 50+ part time volunteer staff perform the day-to-day operations of The Treasury, from collection archiving and cataloguing, digitisation and photographing of collections, to conducting research on behalf of clients. Volunteering roles may also include event management, computer skills and graphic design, book editing and publishing, and much more. And we would love to grow our volunteer team conducting and presenting oral history interviews, with some specialist sector tuition available to committed volunteers.
We welcome volunteers with experience to offer as well as those who are eager to learn. We provide training to our volunteer staff to equip them in their roles and enable them opportunities to learn archiving, digitisation, publishing, relationship management and collections management.
If getting involved at The Treasury excites you, we would love to hear from you.
“I really love it. It’s interesting to work your way through the treasures and it’s very hard to resist a bit of an extra flick here or an extra look there. It’s all adding to the depth of my knowledge of the area.”
– Marg, Cataloguing Volunteer
Here are the roles we are currently seeking part time volunteers for. If you are interested in knowing more, please complete and submit our Volunteer Enquiry form.
Do you have a knack for repairing old, damaged books? From time to time some of our books in our research library need some love and care to make them stable enough to put back on the shelves. If you are able to help us we'd love to hear from you.
We're looking for a volunteer who would love to keep our gardens looking tidy including trimming hedges.
Our heritage items need to be sorted, placed in special archivist packaging and labelled. We're looking for volunteers who can give our treasures the care they deserve.
We are looking for part time volunteers who can welcome our visitors with a smile and help point them in the right direction. We're currently looking for people who can help us on Mondays, Thursdays , Fridays and/or Saturdays.
We are looking for volunteers who can help our visitors and online customers research their past at our Centre on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and especially Saturdays. You will become experts in the wealth of information we have.
The Treasury’s doors are open to both physical and remote visitors. You can explore our abundant collections in person; or you can engage our skilled research team to assist you or even to do all the research yourself; and as more and more of our collection is catalogued and digitised, in the future our whole Archive and Reading Room resources will be accessible and you will be able to research virtually.
This quote was the opening statement of The Coromandel Heritage Trust’s successful 2013 application to Lottery Environment & Heritage which was the final enabler of the Archive build. Daring to dream is what has created the Archive we see today at The Treasury.
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