2026.08.25 Fevear Rekindled 1200 X 400 Web

Journey into Ōpunakē’s fascinating past, as documented by the Feaver family photographers, and help us identify the people and their stories.

From beautiful studio portraits of wedding parties, to scenes of bushclearing and farming, this is a remarkable record of rural life which spans the 1890s to the 1940s.

The Feaver Collection of 10,077 glass-plate negatives is being catalogued and digitised at Puke Ariki Museum in Ngāmotu New Plymouth. We’re grateful for a grant of $200,000 from the Lotteries Environment and Heritage Fund Te Tahua Taiao Ngā Taonga to enable this work.

Our project team

  • Pictorial Curator, Natasha McKinney
  • Museum Imaging Specialist, Rosie Moyes
  • Project Cataloguing Assistant, Farrar Cassidy
  • Project Digitisation Assistants, Sam McComb and Shayla Welson
John Feaver in Feaver’s chemist, Ōpunakē. GNF3096.
Walk-through milking shed, 1910s. GNF408.
Group of young men, unidentified. GNF5092.
Ōpunakē Tennis Club concert, ‘The Canoe Ballet’, 1927. GNF6941.
W. Janett and nephews, 1916. GNF4304.
Waiwera Kere and Liza (Raita) Kere, 1913. GNF3405.
William Hohaia and friends, 1920. GNF5603
Two unidentified men. GNF2170.