About

Devonport Library Associates was founded in 1970 to assist the Devonport Library to expand its services. Over time the DLA has provided numerous books, artworks, maps and CDs to the library. Their primary focus is creating an environment that brings the local book world to life through regular events at the library featuring talks with prominent authors and artists.

DLA endorses the statement by the NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) regarding the value of books to our society: ‘Reading and books are vital to modern Aotearoa: they help us to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. Local stories and books contribute to the culture and heritage of our country, while high levels of reading participation are integral to our success as a modern democracy.’ https://authors.org.nz/election-23-vote-for-books-reading/

  • 85% of New Zealanders read a book each year (Read NZ, 2021).
  • 1,633,812 million New Zealanders are active public library members (PLNZ, 2021).
  • 97 million books were read in NZ in 2021, 25 million were NZ (Read NZ, 2022).
  • 2475 books were published in Aotearoa in 2022 (PANZ).
  • NZ publishing revenue is $292 million; $51.8 million domestic book sales (PANZ, 2022)
  • Authors average annual income $15,600 (CLNZ Horizon Writers Survey, 2020)
  • 30% of Read NZ’s 2021 survey said reading became more important during the pandemic and 90% of readers cited it as crucial to their wellbeing.

One of DLA’s most recent events, the launch of Dame Anne Salmond’s book, KNOWLEDGE IS A BLESSING ON YOUR MIND: SELECTED WRITINGS, 1980–2020, is an example of our role in celebrating local writers and their active presence in this community.

Devonport resident Dame Anne Salmond is an anthropologist, environmentalist, writer and Distinguished Professor at the University of Auckland. https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/knowledge-is-a-blessing-on-your-mind/

Photo by Jan Salter Dickens.

Videos

Devonport Library Associates’ (DLA) series of library talks feature conversations, stories, experiences and perspectives of some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s significant writers across all genres.

The Godwits- In Pursuit of Champions: September 26, 2023

Keith Woodley, godwit expert and manager of the Miranda Shorebird Centre and author of Godwits, Long Haul Champions tells the fascinating story of the godwits’ epic migrations, and the dedicated efforts to conserve wetlands and their biodiversity. With archaeologist and writer, Dave Veart, he discusses godwits’ innate skills in weather prediction and global navigation, weaving the latest scientific findings into history, literature and folklore.

Posse of Poets celebrated National Poetry Day, 25 August, with Devonport poets both emerging and well-known. The event also commemorated two beloved local icons, Kevin Ireland and Jack Smith, who passed away in 2023, both in their 80s.

Poets featured in order of appearance are Geoff Chapple and Miriam Beaston, Ian Rockel, Denys Trussell, Jan Salter-Dickens, Darren Crosby (RNZN,) Lynn Dawson, Greg Hall, Eliza Sagar, Te Awhina Arahanga

Writer, archaeologist, historian and local resident Dave Veart speaks about the Maori archaeology of Te Hau Kapua Devonport Peninsula on Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland’s North Shore/ Te Raki Paewhenua.

Trained as an anthropologist, he worked as a Department of Conservation historian and archaeologist for over twenty five years and is well known for his documentation of heritage areas around the kainga.

“Archaeology fascinates me because it adds layers to our understanding of the past in a way that ordinary history can’t. This is because each place gets to tell its own story. We all live on top of the people who went before, sometimes, as with the pa sites at Takarunga/Mt Victoria…. and the gardens, and places where people fished and landed their waka.”

Dave is introduced by Devonport local, well-known radio identity, karate instructor and bee-keeper Danny Watson.

Graeme Lay sits down with Kevin Ireland to celebrate the end of the year with all our supporters.

With thanks to The Devonport Library and all of the Library Associates members.

Tracey Barnett hosts an invigorating panel discussion on ‘What We Aren’t Telling our Daughters’.

With guests Rose Evans, Tessa Duder, Augustine Morgan-Guthrie and Michelle Leggott.

‘I Have Loved Me a Man’ takes readers inside the social revolution that has moved New Zealand from the 1960s to the present day through the story of the one, the only, queer Māori performance artist: Mika.

Join author Sharon Mazer and Mika as they discuss his incredible stories and experiences.

Join eminent NZ authors Kevin Ireland and C. K. Stead as they launch Stead’s latest book, ‘That Derrida Whom I Derided Died’ at Devonport Library.

Have the Baby Boomers stolen our future? Or are today’s millennials too entitled to realise how good they have it? David and Mary Margaret Slack lead a lively debate for and against each side….

Join Massey University Author Peter wells as he and Nicola Legat discuss his latest work ‘Dear Oliver’

Bronwyn Holloway Smith takes us through her journey to find many of the lost and iconic murals of E Mervyn Taylor.

Two ANZAC diggers – one who lost his mind and the other who remembered every detail. View the Launch of two ANZAC biographies; Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac and Gallipoli to the Somme: Recollections of a New Zealand Infantryman.

Proudly brought to you by the Devonport Library Associates and Massey University Press, the evening featured readings by ten poets, including Elizabeth Morton, Alistair Paterson, and Albert Wendt.

The mighty tōtara is one of the biggest and oldest trees in the New Zealand forest. The heart of Maori carving and culture it also trails No.8 wire as fence posts on settler farms. Tōtara’s story is the story of New Zealand.

We are a democracy founded on and crafted from the meeting of two very different world views: those of Maori and Pākeha. Dame Anne Salmond suggests that the confluence of those views informs a new way of addressing the care of our rivers and land, seas and peoples, and could provide an example of the solution to the global challenges which face us all.


Pacifica poet Selena Tusitala Marsh brings a stimulating mix of sharp intelligence, warrior fierceness, perceptive humour and energy to this new collection of work. David Eggleton describes it as ‘spikey and fierce, brash and vital, by turns, comic, irreverent, poignant, rhapsodic, anthemic, confrontational.

Graeme Lay is the author of several works of fiction and non-fiction set in the islands of the South Pacific. The latest of these is his novel ‘Fletcher of the Bounty.’

To mark the official launch of the Devonport Writers’ Collection you are invited to come and meet these wonderful people, raise a glass to their talent and achievement. This will be held in the superb setting of our library, with APO cellist Paul van Houtte to offer a musical intermission and provide music throughout the evening.

Birds chirp and monkeys chatter, but only humans possess the extraordinary power to tell stories and offer explanations, to inform and persuade, to use the baffle and bullshit we call language. How come?

A Brief History

Devonport Library Associates was founded in 1969 by a group of friends, Muriel Lloyd Pritchard (Professor of Economics at AU), Shirley Brickell (potter Barry Brickell’s mother), and Mary Haines (the ‘Colonel’s Lady’). They were helped by Professor Sidney Musgrove (Professor of English at AU), who was the first Patron.

DLA held its first formal meeting on 8th July 1969 and the first AGM was held on 20th November 1970. The aims and objects were generally to assist the Devonport Library to expand its facilities. At the time it was unusual for a borough as small as Devonport to provide a public library service.

In past years, the Associates were instrumental in providing, amongst other things an art collection for hire, a full set of 1;5000 NZ maps, the nucleus of a CD hire collection, the Brickell Ferry Tiles, the portrait of Kevin Ireland, the Borough Centennial Pottery, and numerous books. The Associates republished Tom Walsh’s History of Devonport, and published biographies of two significant Devonport authors, Isabel Maud Peacocke and Hector Bolitho. They have identified and put plaques around Devonport on the homes of local writers.

The DLA has also built a collection of the works of Devonport authors, past and present. Since there are around 30 published authors living locally, many of whom have produced multiple works, the collection is now significant.

Since 2017 there have been numerous events featuring prominent writers. Many of them are members of our community, such as Dame Anne Salmond, Dave Veart, Roger Hall, Graeme Lay, Julia Gatley, Geoff Chapple and Michele Leggott. These events are popular with both Devonport and wider Auckland, regularly attracting audiences of over 100 people to the Library. Some of these events have been filmed and can be found on the website’s ‘Videos’ page.