Remembering the Wahine

For some reason I always think of the Wahine tragedy as part of New Zealand's long past history. Sure I have run across people in my time who can remember it happening and even someone who was one of the lucky survivors. But it was sobering watching the documentary last week to realise that it actually happened in my lifetime. And one of my fellow librarians who lived in Wellington at the time can vividly remember the storm and the family huddling in the middle of the living room.

Today marks 40 years since the tragedy, with special services (both public and private) being held around Wellington to mark the occasion (and probably many more private moments around the country as people remember.

There are some excellent resources for those wanting to know more about the Wahine.

• The Maritime New Zealand website has a comprehensive history of the vessel and the events of the day.
• Both the Wellington Library and the Christchurch Library have excellent resource pages.
• The National Library has links through the newspapers and images from the period
• Rodney Libraries have a number of books about the Wahine disaster, both fiction and non-fiction, for both adult and children. On of my favourites for children is Abandon ship! : the diary of Debbie Atherton, Wellington, 1968 (Shirley Corlett) which is part of the My Story series. Each event is narrated in diary form by a child who is part of the action. For a slightly higher age group try No Safe Harbour (David Hill).