Graham Stuart Park (born 21 August 1947) is a New Zealand anthropologist and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

director. He was the anthropologist at

Otago Museum Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of t ...

from 1965 to 1979, and the director of

Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Aucklan ...

from 1979 to 1993. Park was among the team of creative directors who developed

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

, the national museum of New Zealand in Wellington.

Early life

Park was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England on 21 August 1947, the son of Douglas Robert Park and Doreen Ledlie Stuart. His father, originally from

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, served in the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, and the

Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve The Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNZNVR) is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). History Early history The first Naval Volunteer units were formed in Auckland and Nelson in 1858. Over the rest of th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Park attended

North Sydney Boys High School North Sydney Boys High School (abbreviated as NSBHS) is a government-funded, single-sex, academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In 2022, Nor ...

and at age 15 arrived in New Zealand, where he attended

Otago Boys' High School , motto_translation = "The ‘right’ learning builds a heart of oak" , type = State secondary, day and boarding , established = ; years ago , streetaddress= 2 Arthur Street , region = Dunedin , state = Otago , zipcod ...

. After high school, Park studied at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

, receiving a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1968 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

with honours in 1972.

Career

Park was employed as the anthropologist at

in 1968, where he stayed for 11 years. During this time, he worked on excavating archaeological sites at

Tiwai Point Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. A spit which extends from the western end of the Awarua Plain, it lies between Awarua Bay to the north and Foveaux Strait to the south. ...

, before the construction of the

Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter The Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter is an aluminium smelter owned by Rio Tinto Group (79.36%) and the Sumitomo Group (20.64%), via a joint venture called New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) Limited. The facility, New Zealand's only aluminium sme ...

. He left the Otago Museum in 1979 after 12 years to become the director of the

, becoming one of the youngest museum directors in New Zealand, at 32. While at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Park took a keen interest in developing the museum volunteers programme, which began in December 1983. In addition to this, Park had interests in ethnology, applied arts and museum studies, and instigated the first Auckland Museum newsletters. After an incident when

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

reused old footage taken at the museum of culturally sensitive items against his wishes, Park banned TVNZ from filming at the museum. In the early 1990s, Park worked to redevelop the first floor of the museum, including the Volcanoes & Giants exhibition and Weird & Wonderful, an exhibition space for tactile learning about the natural world. He left Auckland War Memorial Museum in December 1993, becoming a concept leader for

in Wellington from 1993 until 1998. Park, as a member of the concept leader team, was tasked with conceiving ideas for opening exhibits at Te Papa for its opening in 1998, as well as developing the museum's collections. After the museum opened, Park became the director of museum resources from 1998 to 1999. In October 1999, Park moved to

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is the largest town in Northland, New Zealand. It is a tourist destination north of Auckland and north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei. It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of th ...

, where he became the Northland area manager for the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

. During this period, Park worked on creating a central database for information on Northland war memorials. Park retired on 31 August 2012, after which he dedicated much of his time to developing a personal collection of glasswork, which was exhibited at the New Zealand Glassworks facility in

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

in 2022. In 2016, Park wrote the content for ''Path to Nationhood'', an app created by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

that offers audio tours of different historic areas around Northland.

Honours

In 2018, Park became a Fellow of Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Partial list of publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes

References

* * 1947 births Living people Directors of museums in New Zealand Directors of the Auckland War Memorial Museum English anthropologists English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand anthropologists People associated with the Auckland War Memorial Museum People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa People educated at North Sydney Boys High School People educated at Otago Boys' High School People from Croydon People from Dunedin University of Otago alumni {{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Stuart