Heritage Taranaki expresses extreme concern and dismay at the job cuts proposed for Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and the National Library Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. According to the Public Service Association, 47 FTEs will be lost, representing ~12% of an already diminished and strained workforce.
These organisations are the repositories for some of our most significant archives and taonga, and are utilised by students, historians, genealogists, and a broad range of New Zealanders on a daily basis.
Heritage Taranaki supports the Aotearoa History and Heritage Alliance (AHHA), representing 8 organisations across Aotearoa’s history and heritage sector, to express our strong opposition to the proposed job cuts at Archives New Zealand and the National Library of New Zealand. Heritage Taranaki is a member of Historic Places Aotearoa, which is part of the Aotearoa History and Heritage Alliance. You can find the AHHA’s open letter to the National Librarian and Chief Archivist at the bottom of this page.
We are of the view that these cuts will cause lasting damage to our nation’s capacity to look after our shared history and collective memory.
The proposed job cuts at Archives New Zealand and the National Library of New Zealand are part of a growing number of challenges facing the New Zealand heritage sector. These include funding cuts at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, and funding challenges at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and other regional museums.
In addition, resource management reforms (the Planning and Natural Environment Bills) will severely erode protections for our unique and finite historic heritage including heritage buildings, archaeological sites, sites and areas of significance to Māori (including pā, urupā, kāinga), and notable trees (see Heritage Taranaki’s submission on these Bills for an analysis of heritage impacts).
Whilst the AHHA’s open letter is addressed to the National Librarian and Chief Archivist, the proposed cuts are largely a response to government led funding cuts, and we call on the relevant Ministers, the Hon Brooke van Velden, Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Hon Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, to ensure that our heritage institutions are adequately resourced to carry out their functions, and to protect our irreplaceable heritage and history now, and into the future.
We have provided some links to relevant articles below:
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/09/07/government-slammed-over-job-cuts-at-national-library/
https://museumsaotearoa.org.nz/news/the-te-papa-experiment-is-under-pressure-what-happens-next
We encourage you to share the AHHA’s letter through your networks, and to express your concerns regarding the proposed cuts at the National Library and Archives New Zealand, and at other public heritage institutions, to your local MP and/or the relevant Minister.
Featured image: Pekapeka Block Deed Map, 1860, ABWN 8102 W5279 Box 390 / Tar 15, Archives New Zealand.
AHHA Open Letter