CFM INVESTIGATION

Proposal

Statement:

I am going to consider whether the skating community should be encouraged to skate a Pukeahu, War
Memorial Park.

Background
information/research

I first became aware of the

depth of the issue when I was
talking to one of the curators,
Paul Riley, at the War
Memorial. He said that it was
great to see some many people
using the public space as a
relaxation area and an access
way. His view was that it was
encouraging to see a range of
people taking an interest in the
purpose of Pukeahu and what it
stands for.

The only issue he raised was that there are ongoing complaints about skaters damaging certain areas of the
park and showing a lack of respect for what the park represents.

To look further into this topic, I searched the internet for any articles relating to skateboarders in Pukeahu.
Among many, I found a Stuff article written by Audrey Seaman in May 2015. The first side of the story was
from the skaters who said they “understand their actions could be disrespectful but said they visited the park
daily because it was more open and free than skate parks”. As for the damage the skaters pointed out that
they believed that the main course of the damage was from the rollerbladers. The curators at the War
Memorial have tried to ask the skateboarders to stop but as they have no direct authority so the skaters
continue.

The people who do have the authority are the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Their point of view is that it is
a public space for all to share but respect needs to be shown on impotent days such as ANZAC day.

The feedback from the public is that the skaters are not so much of an issue but it is the damage the
rollerblade and skateboards inflict on the space. After all we want the space to be around for as long as
possible.
Aim and questions

Aim: To build or repurpose a space that befits the public, skaters and curators at Pukeahu.

1. What is the issue?

2. What used to be in there before the park was built?
3. What is the view of the local Iwi Ngati Toa Rangatira in terms of public behavior in a memorial?
4. What is the atmosphere like at Pukeahu?
5. How many skaters use Pukeahu War Memorial Park?
6. what rules are there in place for the skating community at other memorial parks around the country?
7. Why might skaters be perceived as unhealthy for this space?

This list of questions is a starting point for me to develop and explore. As I carry out my investigation, more
questions will arise which will likely take me down a different path.

How will I investigate?

The groups who are effected my investigation are the skating community, the curators/staff who work at the
War memorial, the public and the local iwi, Ngati Toa Rangatira. I will have to go out and ask the skaters
themselves what it is about this space that makes them come. On top of this I will look the street skating seen
via skateboard magazines in the Massey library to see if there are any key elements between the layout of
Pukeahu and purpose build skate parks. It would also be beneficial to get the opinion of the curators as to
why the skaters come. From there I can build a rounded idea of Pukeahu’s purpose and appeal

I will start by looking on line at websites and any relevant articles that provide some explanation as to how
skaters can use the space. It is also important to understand what Pukeahu represents and how people
should treat a memorial park. I will also try and observe skaters at Pukeahu and other places not specifically
designed for them to see how respectful of the space they are.

In terms of relating the Treaty of Waitangi back to my investigation, I will attempt to engage with the local iwi
because I feel that they will be able to communicate and unpack the meanings of the treaty.

Ethics and the treaty

Using the Massey library as a research facility will be ethical because the nature of libraries is to provide
information. I will need to make sure that I reference my findings and show respect in the space as I am a
guest within it. This also will be applied to any online material I use.

Things start to get a little tricky when I talk to the people one on one. It will be important to talk to all parties
with respect and transparency. The questions that I ask will need to be open ended to not make them feel
pushed into an answer that I want.

In the context of the Treaty, my investigation relates to the second article of the treaty which talks about equal
rights and opportunities. As it is a public space it needs to be available for all communities so long the space
is treated with respect.

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TEXT BASED INVESTIGATION Pt 1

What is the issue?

As outlined in the proposal, there is some controversy around whether skaters should be encouraged to ride
at Pukeahu. The biggest concern for the curators at the national war memorial is the damage the rollerblades
and skateboards inflict on the stone and concrete. There is also a moral and ethical issue because some
people think that skating on a memorial space is disrespectful.

Why might skating on and around memorials be considered disrespectful?

Memorials are a place for reflection, acknowledgement and thought. They are built to help people remember
an even and the sacrifice people made for a course. What this tends to look like in terms of people in the
space, is quiet, slow and meaningful movement, solemn expressions and no distractions. You rarely see
people laughing because the space is not meant to invoke amusement. Memorials are serious places so
when people come into the space and use it for their own pleasure it reflects a selfishness on them. However,
Pukeahu is not the same as other memorials. It is a public park as well. This means that there is a grey area
around weather skaters are skating on the memorial or just on the park. Ula Klobuszewka, Urban Labs

Here are some photos that I took of

the damage where the skates use
the space the most. You can see in
the right photo that there are
ledges that are perfect for skaters.
However according to the War
memorial curator, the skating
community don’t acknowledge the damage. He also raised the problem of who would pay. One the one hand
it is a public space so the government are obliged to fix their space. But the skaters exclusively coursed the
damage so does that mean that the skaters should pay of or fix the damage through a moral compass?
Waikato Times, Stuff

The public feel that the skaters act as a distraction from the message that the park gives delivers. This is in
part due to the clatter the boards make as well as the thought that the skaters as using the space as a skate
park rather than a memorial. This leads to the belief that the “skating culture” is brought with them. Alexander
Robinson, Radio NZ

But we rarely hear from the skating community. Why do they come here? Do they understand what the
purpose for the space is? And do they understand that’s skating can be considered disrespectful?

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TEXT BASED INVESTIGATION Pt 2

What used to be in there before the park was built?

I feel that it is important to delve a little in to the context of Pukeahu War memorial park and why the park was
created. This will help me understand how people connect to the space and how it should be used.

Pukeahu, Mt Cook was originally settled by the Te Atiawa iwi long before Pakeha settlers arrived in the area.
During the WW1 and WW2, Pukeahu became military training ground specifically for long range cannons that
protected wellington harbour. In 1919, the national war memorial was built. The surrounding space was then
slowly developed into a residential and industrial area with a motorway running parallel to the memorial. The
combination of a noisy road, ugly buildings and lack of creativity with the spaces resulted in the war memorial
becoming less uninviting. This all came to a head in 2012 when a combination of the upcoming WW1
commemorations and heavy traffic allowed the government to pump $120 million into the Pukeahu National
War Memorial Park and underpass. Ministry of Culture and Heritage, New Zealand government

The purpose of Pukeahu National War Memorial Park

The government wanted to upgrade the National War Memorial for the WW1 commemorations. According to
the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, Pukeahu is, “the national place for New Zealanders to remember and
reflect on this country’s experience of war, military conflict and peacekeeping, and how that experience
shapes our ideals and sense of national identity.” In an interview with RNZ, Former Governor general, Sir
Jerry Mateparae said that "Pukeahu is a place to remind New Zealanders how precious peace is to all of us."
As well as being a place for the public to spend time, the Ministry outlined Pukeahu as a place for major
ceremonies such as Anzac Day and a space to commemorate other counties who had/have military
partnerships with NZ. These include the Australian, Turkish and British memorials. Ministry of Culture and
Heritage, New Zealand government Amy Jackman, The Dominion Post

What is the view of the local Iwi Ngati Toa Rangatira in terms of public behavior?

I looked at Ngati Toa Rangatira’s website but could not find any relevant information around public rules
or public behaviour. I then looked at the What Works website, specifically the Maori ethics framework to
see if I could apply anything to public behaviour. I found that the word Aroha could apply to this example.
It talks about being respectful and letting the participant choose. They are in control. What I think this
means in the context of Pukeahu, anyone who uses the space needs to be aware that is was built by the
government so it needs to be treated with respect. Ngati Toa Rangatira, NZ Iwi, Kaupapa Maori, what
works.

HUMAN CENTRED INVESTIGATION Pt 1

What is the atmosphere like at Pukeahu?

I wanted to get an idea of the atmosphere of Pukeahu through inhabiting the pace for 20-30 minutes. Rather
than looking at what people were doing, I focused on the space and why people might be drawn to it. I also
wanted to understand the feeling the space gives you when you inhabit it.

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The atmosphere:

There are no clear bounders to the park. No fences or many obvious signs. The park covers quite a large
area and consists of a mixture of grass, stone, concrete and pebbles. When you are in the space, the noise
of the traffic is still present but it is not as loud as walking alongside the park or road. On occasion, you will
hear a brass band and at 5pm every day the Last Post is played. The Arras tunnel cuts off the notice to the
park providing a feeling of tranquility. This is reinforced by the views from around the park. The view back up
Mt Cook shows off the national War memorial and the Carillion standing strong to attention. The view north is
filled up with the Australian Memorial. The grass areas offer a peaceful space to sit without being distracted.
This effect is strengthened by the openness of Pukeahu. The design of the space has been thought out so
that you do not feels cluttered. You can take time to think in peace and quiet. The five memorials around
Pukeahu can be seen from almost anywhere in the park. This future serve as a constant reminder of the
sacrifice our soldiers made in the Great War.

How many skaters use Pukeahu War Memorial Park?

To answer this I thought it would be accurate to do a servery of the number of skaters by sitting down with a
table and each rider ticking off if they rode the park. My rules for riding the park were if they stay in the same
area for a period doing tricks. My schedule only allowed me to go twice a week and I went on a Monday and
Saturday. This did allow me to get an idea of difference or similarities of the numbers on the weekends vs the
week days. I also looked at the behaviour of the skaters and how they treated the space.

However, I this is just a little insight into the number of skater who skate at Pukeahu. To get any real patterns
I would need to take at least three days’ worth of data. Currently, I might have two groups of outliers that
aren’t representative of the population.

There was only a difference of one skater more on Saturday compared with Monday (35 vs 36). I think that
there isn’t much change in the number of skaters on a day today basis. I did notice that a round lunch time a

5
lot of school students from Wellington High School come down to have lunch. Many of them skated. This
made me wonder in the proximity of the school lured the students down to Pukeahu because there would be
less people.

In terms of the behaviour of the skaters is was very good. Except for riding the ledges and the main tiled
courtyard, I never saw any misbehaviour or disrespect to the public or the rest of the park. However, I might
have a biased point of view since I am their age and have skating friends.

What I did notice is that there were very few big groups of skaters. Most came in two and threes. Over the
course of the three hours, it didn’t feel like there were that many skaters. I certainly didn’t get the feeling that
they were using it as a skate park but rather as space that could be ridden in a casual way. On occasion,
outside of my observations I have walked passed the park at night and seen larger groups drinking and
skating. This sort of behaviour I think raises a greater issue of public drinking and where that takes place.

HUMAN CENTRED INVESTIGATION Pt 2

I talked to a skater, Will, who lives close by to Pukeahu, to get some insight into the skating community’s
thoughts about the space and why they use it.

This was more of a discussion rather than me asking questions. We started off by outlining why, from the
skaters point of view, Pukeahu is an attractive place to skate. He said that the surfaces that the park is built
from as ideal for skaters. The hard, smooth surfaces provide excellent platform to skate on. He said that that
the ledges (shown above) are ideal to ride and make videos. We discussed that the easy accessibility of
Pukeahu from the city and surrounding areas including schools.

The convocation then moved on to the issue of damage and public discomfort with people skating. He noted
that he and his friends don’t want to be disrespectful and purposely avoid skating in and close to the
memorials. “They don’t offer much anyway”. Will recognised that some smaller skating groups do treat public
places with little respect but he hasn’t seen then at Pukeahu. As to whether the skating community should be
able to skate there or not. He raised the point that for one thing, there are no signs saying you cannot sake
nor any signs that give a set of guidelines that tell you how behave in the space. This was the point that the
War Memorial curator also pointed out. Will also mentioned that the area he and his friends skate on is a
public space and there are many public spaces around Wellington that can be ridden. He felt that they were
far enough away from the memorials to course as issue. We then talked about the damage and what the
meant for the space. Will Acknowledged that the damage was from the skating community and that is was an
issue that should be solved. He pointed out that public spaces need to be kept attractive and usable. The
damage is more apparent because the space wasn’t built with skaters in mind so the materials don’t hold up
so well. We talked about whether the designers/builders were at fault for designing a space that was inviting
for skaters considering that there has been some backlash from people wanting the skaters removed.

I did ask him whether there were enough skate parks around wellington and if not was that a reason for
skaters coming to Pukeahu?

Will said that he was newish to Wellington so he probably didn’t know of all the hot spots. It did seem to his
that there were plenty mainly due to the compact nature of wellington. He commented that probably the
biggest reason for coming to skate at Pukeahu was because it just happened to be on the route they were
going.

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 References

 The History of Mount Cook/Pukeahu in Wellington. Contr. Mathew Tonks. Vimeo. Film

 Ministry of Culture and Heritage. New Zealand government. “Pukeahu National War Memorial Park.”
Manatu Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. New Zealand Government, 10th November
2017.

 Amy Jackman.” War Memorial Park all but completed.” The Dominion Post, Stuff. 05:00, March 17,
2015.

 Alexander Robinson. “National War Memorial opens.” Radio NZ National.1:36 am on 19 April 2015.

 Ula Klobuszewka. “German Memorials: Respect, education and Reconciliation. Urban Labs, Central
Europe. 9th November 2016.

 Waikato Times. “Skaters may face huge fines for riding illegally. Stuff. 10:38, 10th February 2009.

 Ngati Toa Rangatira. “Ngati Toa MIO Rules.” Ngatitoa iwi. 9th May 2009.

 Kaupapa Maori. “Princilpes of a Kaupapa maori ethical Framework” What Works. 2015.

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 Reflections

Texted based reflections

Undertaking this investigation deepened my understanding of the issue of skaters riding in Pukeahu. I did not
realize that there was an issue with skaters until the War memorial curator mentioned it. I leaned that a lot
more groups and communities can be affected by an issue and therefore it is important that you dig deeper to
get a fuller understanding. This is because you can never assume that you know everything and different
people are effected in different ways to the same thing. This investigation showed me that there are layers
and layers of information on a topic. What I learned down was to look at a good range and filter them. Once
you get to cluttered with resources, the differing opinions can make it tricky to establish a good investigation.
It is important to identify the ones that are from reliable souses. However, it is important to find opinions from
different points of view otherwise you will end up with a biased investigation. However, all my written articles
are online. In the future, I will look harder in libraries for material. It was hard for this investigation because the
issue of skater at Pukeahu is only a resent one so apart from newspapers, there was hardly any published
work on the subject. I made sue that my work was ethical because I referenced all the websites and videos I
used to build my investigation. I never copied the work directly and any quotes were in quotation marks.

Human Centered reflections

For this investigation, I looked into three different human centered approaches. The first was an evaluation of
the atmosphere in Pukeahu. It was interesting to stay in the space and really concentrate on why the
atmosphere is the way it is. From doing this, I gained a better understanding of what components go into
creating an atmosphere. This also helped me to understand why Pukeahu is an attractive place to skate. The
second investigation was going back and taking a survey of the number of skaters riding the park and how
they treated the park. This allowed me to check if people’s reports were at all accurate or whether they were
exaggerating. However, I only did two days out of one week so my data pool is not quite big enough to claim
that I am completely accurate. For future investigations that require data, I will try and gather at least three
samples of data to be able to claim I am accurate. From Observing the skaters, I was able to form my own
opinions of their behavior instead of relying on others and again, running the risk of exaggeration. The third
human centered investigation was a conversation with a skater named Will. This was good because it gave
me direct insight into the skating community and what their perspective on this situation. I made sure that I
was ethical in my questions by explaining clearly what I was investigating and what I would do with the
information provided by Will.

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 Final Reflection

The issue I investigated was whether skaters should be encouraged so skate at Pukeahu War Memorial
Park. From following several different sources and investigative routes, I learned a lot about issue with
skaters, the purpose of the space and what goes into a space to make it appealing. Firstly, I learned that
not only is there an issue with skaters damaging the park but there is also conflict between members of
the public who believe that that act of skating in and around the memorial is disrespectful and skaters
should be banned altogether. Also, the curator of the War memorial said that there is a general lack of
signage which is the course of some of the controversy. I now understand from my observations that
although not obvious, a lot goes into creating a space to make it appealing and attractive.

If I were to start over I would consider looking deeper into libraries for resources. This is because even if
you don’t know where to start looking, there amount of information available is so large you are bound to
find something useful or something that you didn’t even know could relate to your topic. Looking back, I
feel like I should have looked deeper into the controversy surrounding the skating culture and how that
can influence people’s opinion of skaters when they see then riding in public spaces.

If I was to continue with the investigation, I would like to see it reach a point where I could propose a
couple of initial solutions. I would firstly go back to the National War memorial as well as the skating
community and discuss what changes they would like to see. It would be important to get the publics
opinion via a hand out survey or something similar. This is because it is still a public space so any
changes that could happen would also effect the public who use the Pukeahu. Since the government
would be responsible for any changes, I would have to get in contact with them to put forward a plan for
feedback. persuade them to somehow chance or repurpose the space.

I had a couple of ideas for solutions. One would be to increase the signage around the park telling
people a little bit more about the expectations for being in the space. If the signs were well positioned, it
might make people rethink their actions. Another option would be to create a skate park in a free area
just down on Taranaki St. This would mean that there would be a skating area in approximately the
same the same location as Pukeahu. My other idea would be to add little metal blocks on top of the
ledges so that the skateboards could not actually ride along.

With any of these solutions I would have to investigate each one further and get feedback from each
community involved. I would also need to make sure that the solution would be ethical by making sure
that I am communicating clearly and not making a biased solution.