With thanks to the Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs, we recently appointed Brooklyn Moeke for a six month internship at the Museum. Brooklyn’s role is to develop blogs for our recently relaunched website, www.hokitikamuseum.nz
In the last few weeks, Brooklyn has made a great contribution to the team, and is well on his way to completing his first blog on James Teer, the first man to sail a steamship over the Hokitika bar in 1864 – but, he is probably more well known for having survived the 'General Grant' shipwreck in May 1866, and being stranded on the Auckland Islands for 18 months where he and fellow survivors managed to survive on a diet of seal meat. He returned to the West Coast where, dressed in his sealskin clothes, he gave lectures in mining communities on life as a castaway. In 1874 he worked as a boatman on the Hokitika River but in 1875 settled at Arawata, an isolated area near Jackson Bay. Here he came into conflict with the resident Government agent for killing seals – now his preferred diet – out of season. .He died on 30 April 1887 and at his burial, in a customary West Coast gesture of admiration, a bottle of whisky was poured over his coffin.
Brooklyn’s James Teer blog will be online shortly, so check out our website for updates.
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