Table of contents
Introduction……pg. 2 Why do people leave their homeland….pg. 2 What artefacts do they bring with them……pg. 3 What do people say from interviews……..pg. 4
Conclusion……..pg. 5
This is a collection of ancient Roman bronze.
Introduction Have you ever wondered why do people leave their homeland? What artefacts do they bring with them? I have all the Answers. That’s right, this girl. I focused my report on artefacts. Artefacts are a very interesting thing that can reflect someone's memories by what they have been through and about the people and culture they have left behind. Everything can be an artefact as long as you have been through something with it. I am going to be telling you all I know about artefacts. Why do people leave their homelands? I left Boulder, Colorado, US because of adventure and because of curiosity. We had visited NZ during Christmas and not long after we left, my mom gave me the offer to move here and I just couldn’t refuse. My mom wanted a safe place for me to grow older as I get more independent and she had lived here before I was born and thought it would be a good place for us. I'm going to tell you the story of Rebecca Li-Huang, a Chinese American writer. She was born and raised in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in central China, famous for its staple spicy food. "Every Chinese student that was forced to silence, looked up to the United States as the Holy Land of intellectual freedom and democracy, even I did." Rebecca said. She was in 1st grade, when Chair Mao died. When she was a junior major at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) when the Tiananmen Square broke out. China had just undergone sweeping economic reform under Deng Xiaoping 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ but, with the government splitting up, China was under a big dark cloud. With only $250 and a student visa, she arrived in Washington DC for her American dream on September 11th, 1990, the day when the fewest people would fly and the plane ticket was cheap. But of course, reality was always harsher than dreams. While Rebecca received a tuition waiver from an expensive private University, she discovered that her entire cash stash would not cover the rent deposit for the
cheapest apartment in DC. She went to Chicago where the few Chinese students she all knew from Alma master at USTC lived, became her much needed family and support group. Rebecca overcame the hard work by doing it and 'a streak of luck with incredibly kind people from all walks of life.' in the 1980's and the early 1990's, few ordinary Chinese could pay for living prices on American land, never mind tuitions. Those who came from the mainland to the U.S. on a student visa were likely to graduate with a scholarship in "hard" science or those who had to pay for their own schools. "Eying the relative resources of average American particularly the right to work I saw as an enviable privilege, I had once felt inferior and insecure 'poor' Chinese." Rebecca recalled. After several relocations including a two year cushy life in London, she and her husband, who is also a Chinese native, finally settled down in San Francisco, where they started their family and bought their first house, then later on they moved over to the east coast and began to build dual careers. What artefacts do they bring with them? I brought a lot of suitcases, some books and toys, bedding, etc. have you ever been to the Nairn Street Cottage (NSC)? Do you know the history of that place? If you do you don’t have to read this next bit but you can. William and Catherine both were living in London at the time and because factories were just underway so people were coming from all over to England to London for factory work so London was getting quite crowded and a bunch who were London natives were leaving to other new countries. Some went to Australia, others went to America, etc. William and Catherine chose New Zealand because not many people lived there so there was lots of nice big land to buy. They brought with them some wallpaper (A traditional wedding gift) and a big box/trunk as well with Williams name on it. By the time they got there, Catherine was pregnant with their first child so William built the house which today we call Nairn Street Cottage. After their 6th child William decided to build a second story to the house. They had ten children but the last one died at 18 months old and that was quite long for the time when they were alive. What did people say from interviews? Mrs. De Muth is from Germany which is where she had grown up, when she was studying at the University in Germany, she took one year off to come here to NZ, after one year she had come back to Germany with her husband who was a New Zealander (Kiwi) and they had some children but Germany wasn’t a very good place for children to grow up (Even though she had grown up there) so they moved back here and raised their children (But of course this was 12 years ago) here in New Zealand. She had always kept up the going to church and she
still does, Mrs. De Muth also keeps up the language and cooking her favorite meals, Easter traditions and certain Christmas traditions during those holidays and Christmas here mid-winter. She has some earrings that she had gotten in Germany and was not from Germany but she still got in Germany and Mrs. De Muth has a beautifully written German bible which they use quite often and is very special to her and her family. (Most of this is in the 'What artefacts do they bring with them?' section) When I went to the Nairn Street Cottage I learned that William Wallis had become a builder carpenter and he was one of the people that went over to the Crimean war with Florence Nightingale to build the hospitals (Florence Nightingale was the first nurse/first person to take the hospitals on to the war site.) for the injured (The Crimean war took place in what is probably Ukraine now.). That gave William some money and a sense of adventure because he had never been out of England and now he was. When he came back to England he married Catherine and they decided to move to New Zealand for a better way of life. Has anybody heard of the Industrial Revolution because that was what was going on right then (The Industrial Revolution is what I'm going to tell you next, beside the year.). This was all in the 1850''s and that’s when most machines were being invented and factories were starting to take its form, but it men that London was a terrible place at that time because people were coming from all over the country to London for factory work. William and Catherine came out on a sailing ship called The Seven Cross and the trip to London to Wellington took 16 weeks. For those of you who are from London, you would know that flying to New Zealand take only 1 day and 3 hours and compared to 16 weeks, that is really short. If the weather changed as well, like if there was no wind then the trip would take longer and if the sea was rough, then it would also take longer, but if there was good wind and it was nice and calm, then the trip would not slow down. By the time they got here, Catherine was pregnant and any builder was much needed because the builder needed to build houses for the English so William was much needed. The first house he built is The Nairn Street Cottage (TNSC). Quite a few people put their houses by the ocean. In 1855, Wellington had a very big earthquake, it was called the Wairapu earthquake, it shook Wellington and it was eight point something on the scale, and it changed all of Wellington. If you do not know, before the Wairapu earthquake, what we now call Lambton Quay was water front, but now we have maybe three or four blocks more in front of Lambton Quay. After the earthquake, a lot of people got sick because sewer water was getting into drinking water, William didn’t want that so he brought his family to where TNSC is and a little walk away was a river full of fresh, non-sewer, water which we now call Central Park stream or river. William and Catherine went on to have ten children, when they reached six children, they realized that the cottage was getting to small, so William built a second, in those days, it was quite a grand house, but these days it would seem like a very small house. When they moved to New Zealand, they brought with them a big box that belongs to William and some wallpaper from their wedding.
Conclusion: In conclusion I have learned that artefacts are something special that will forever live in our hearts, like how the books and toys we brought from Boulder mean a lot to me. Here are some more examples. William and Catherine had the big box from England and it still sits at the end of the bed as you read this, they also had the wallpaper that I know for sure is in the nursery, and finally, they have the candles that were shipped out from England. William and Catherine may not be alive now, but all those things are still something that A) exists and B) is now a special artefact in a museum. Mrs. De Muth has some earrings from Germany and they are a really special artefacts to her and even though it might not have been made in Germany, it is something that lives in her heart. I now feel that I have a greater understanding of how artefacts are evidence of people's beliefs and values. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/European_Colonization_of _the_Americas http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6624320/Egyptians-Greeks-came-toNew-Zealand-first-book http://www.academia.edu/831213/Respecting_and_Preserving_Cultural_ Values_Partnerships_in_New_Zealand_Museums https://online.clickview.co.nz/mylibrary/videos/36b8b54b-6144-140395e9-148c2322fb96 http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDoc ument.cfm?doc_ID=66620F05-0E60-BE11-791565100325BC72 http://madeintoamerica.org/rebecca-hongbo-li-chinese-american-writer/ http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/germany/