History Calling

Status

Prototype

Launch date

2025

History Calling is a location-based audio storytelling intervention. It connects colonial landmarks around central Ōtautahi Christchurch, mostly statues, to stories that help us understand the history of colonisation.

Scan the code at the statue and your phone rings. Captain Cook, John Godley, Kate Sheppard or Queen Victoria is on the line. After a short call, you choose: call back, or receive a letter with the longer story.

It uses narrative and humour to gently question the myths of colonisation that still stand in our city, and to use them as a starting point for moving towards a Te Tiriti-based future for Aotearoa.

Created by Kris Herbert as a practice-based thesis for the Master of Creative Practice at Ara Institute of Canterbury, 2025.

Take the call: Captain Cook John Godley Kate Sheppard Queen Victoria