Post #614096 by Club Nouméa on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 4:02 PM

This thread is the only on-line source of any substance regarding the Wanganui Savage Club, and consequently local people here are aware of it. Throughout my coverage of the Wanganui Savage Club I have endeavoured to provide appropriate historical background, and put things in context, as I am aware of the way people tend to view the past through the prism of the values of the present. Wanganui is a town where people have long memories and you need to tread carefully and tactfully (see, for example, my earlier coverage of the Moutua Gardens occupation). There is a racial element to the Wanganui Savage Club's past that very easily lends itself to highly-charged debate and slanging matches. Appending that image to a thread devoted to Wanganui, without providing any background or context concerning its origins is, at best, misleading. Also, offering an image of an unsourced object that actually comes from Napier as a reason why the Wanganui Savage Club Hall may not be recognised as a historic place is unfounded. Setting aside the Savage Club's presence there since 1928, the building itself is of historic worth, as it was Wanganui's original museum building and dates from the 1890s.

So that's why I wasn't happy to see that image pop up in this context, and I would be relieved if it could be moved to another more general thread concerning the Savage Clubs elsewhere.

CN

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2011-11-15 16:03 ]

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2011-11-15 17:51 ]

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2011-11-19 15:30 ]