Applications are now open for the Cenotaph Stories: Contemporary Reflections grant offered by Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira in partnership with Copyright Licensing New Zealand.

Cenotaph Stories: Contemporary Reflections is a writing and creative grant which aims to capture responses to COVID-19. It is looking for works which explore the similarities, parallels and perspectives that emerge from considering the pandemic response in the contexts of peace and conflict, and remembrance and commemoration. This online project will explore the concept that New Zealanders’ fight against COVID-19 has been “like a war”.

Auckland Museum’s Collection Manager for Online Cenotaph Victoria Passau says we’re looking for responses from emerging authors and creators.

“We want young and aspiring writers and creators to use Auckland Museum’s Online Cenotaph and Collections Online records to inform and inspire innovative works,” she says.

Online Cenotaph is a military biographical database that acknowledges New Zealand service personnel and enables the public to contribute notes, images and data to individual records. Since 2015, the database has received more than 100,000 contributions.

With more than 235,000 records, Online Cenotaph allows people to understand the individual impact that war has had on our nation. It provides an outlet for expression and helps connect people to the past.

Applicants for this grant can come from all walks of life and could be artists, writers, poets, visual-media practitioners, historians, academics, journalists, cartoonists or data analysts. The Museum is seeking proposals to receive one of five grants of $1,000.

“We are particularly interested in hearing from New Zealand-based writers and creators from iwi Māori and the wider Moana Oceania, as well as those from the disabled, deaf and neurodivergent communities,” says Passau.

This grant has been provided as an outcome of the Special Rounds of Contestable funds provided by Copyright Licensing New Zealand. The funds support short-term projects that have arisen or been developed in response to the changed environment in the New Zealand writing and publishing sector during COVID-19.

Applications for Cenotaph Stories: Contemporary Reflections close on Sunday 28 June 2020.

For more information and to submit applications visit: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/research/contemporary-reflections-grant

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