Digital profiles to tell 26 tales of war

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Publication title: Star, The

Curator Sean Brosnahan and exhibition developer William McKee have created video profiles that tell the tale of 26 Otago men and women who died as a result of war

Researched by Mr Brosnahan and narrated by Mr McKee, the videos use photos, film, paintings, portraits and contemporary newspaper cuttings to provide an account of each person’s life and service, as well as the circumstances of their death.

Mr McKee said the videos can be viewed at the museum, and they are also available to view on the museum’s YouTube page.

The aim of each film was to provide additional context that helped reveal who these people were.

‘‘What did they do, you know, were they members of a church group or a singing group, a sports club?’’

The videos helped provide stories behind some of the 2600 names that comprise the Dunedin Roll of Honour in the Lost Generations room at the museum.

‘‘It is just one way we thought we can try to inform people.’’

Since the room opened about 12 years ago, 500 additional names have been collected.

‘‘For some of them we have no images and we have just got very basic information.’’

For other names there was quite a bit of detail, including information gleaned from internal research as well as contributions from family members getting in touch to share stories and photos with the museum.

‘‘And of course, obviously the harrowing thing about all these is they all ended up one way, unfortunately.’’

While the stories all end with the death of the person, it was also important to tell the stories of their lives.

‘‘It is not just soldiers, it is nurses and there are some civilians here who got caught up as well...