Researcher

One hot afternoon several years ago, I found myself in what would, at one time, have been the most unlikely of situations – sitting at a project meeting as the Heritage Researcher at the Former Law Courts in downtown Yangon in Myanmar, with a range of conservation specialists, architects, developers and engineers from England, France and all over Asia. The project was to turn this complex of buildings – law courts, interrogation centre of the Japanese Kempeitai and party headquarters of Myanmar’s one-party government – into a five-star hotel, and I was to be responsible for the historical research for the project.

Unlikely this situation was because when I’d started my MHST studies in 2009, I’d had a long teaching career and was really just doing the course out of interest. It was the staff of the MHST programme, who encouraged me to think strategically – I can still hear Conal’s words! – and who provided the theoretical background, connections, practical experience and confidence that encouraged me to develop employable skills and understandings in the heritage sector.

Nevertheless, when I moved to Hong Kong soon after the end of the course, I assumed that that would be the end of my incipient heritage career. However, although Hong Kong has destroyed much of its heritage, there was work there. Soon after I arrived, I was engaged by Purcell, a UK company that had won the contract for a major revitalisation project of a complex of buildings now referred to as Tai Kwun.

In the five years that I was in Hong Kong, I worked on the historical research for four projects there and two in Myanmar. They included the former Chinese Lunatic Asylum, (currently the Methadone Clinic), the Bridges Street Market, which was to be turned into a News Expo Museum, a Buddhist nunnery and a Catholic mission house. In Myanmar, I contributed to the historical research on the Taukkyan War Cemetery done for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as well as the hotel project.

I remain very grateful for the professional skills, training and guidance I received during my Graduate Diploma in Museum and Heritage Studies course at Victoria University of Wellington—the course has truly opened up a whole new world!