The Star: October 04, 2018

10 Thursday October 4 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
The Star
News
Research into
tourism uses
social media
CANTERBURY researchers
are using social media to
understand international
visitors’ perceptions of
sustainable tourism.
ChristchurchNZ senior
economist Peter Fieger, and
Canterbury University college
of business and law associate
professor Girish Prayag, professor
Michael Hall and Chris
Chen are exploring how Canterbury
can develop its tourism
industry using social media.
Dr Fieger said the group
hopes to understand what kind
of sustainability operations,
products, services and practices
are most valued by international
visitors.
Dr Prayag said by analysing
online customer reviews and
surveying international visitors,
the team aims to identify
themes about what sustainable
practices and initiatives are
valued.
“This is an exciting research
opportunity to harness the
power of social media analysis
and artificial intelligence techniques
to gain valuable insights
into visitor perception,” Dr
Prayag said
Digging up suffragette’s past
Life of city’s
first female
councillor
unearthed
• By Julia Evans
EVIDENCE OF the tough
life endured by the city’s first
female councillor and leading
suffragette was uncovered during
an archaeological dig at her
home.
Ada Wells was one of the
country’s leading suffragettes,
as well as the
first female city
councillor and
co-founder of
the Canterbury
Women’s
Institute.
Underground
Overground
Ada Wells
archaeologist
Clara Watson,
who analysed the findings of
the dig at her home in Mays
Rd in St Albans, said the
artefacts revealed a lot about the
suffragette’s life.
“There was nothing specifically
DISCOVERY: Archaeologist Clara Watson said the findings
at Ada Wells’ house shone a light on her domestic life.
connected to the suffrage
movement . . . but it was
interesting because of all of the
things she would have been using
every day,” Ms Watson said.
In January 1884, she married
Harry Wells and NZ History said
it was her husband’s “volatile
temper and continual drinking”
that strengthened her views on
the importance of equality and
economic independence for
women.
The dig uncovered small
alcohol bottles, which Ms
Watson said could play into the
story of her husband’s drinking
problem.
“It’s a tricky one making sure
you’re sticking to facts and not
story-telling,” she said.
“But I thought the small
alcohol bottles were a really cool
discovery. Her husband was an
interesting one. According to the
Te Ara Encyclopedia, he was an
alcoholic.”
Ms Watson said other
archaeological research has
connected small alcohol bottles
to hidden drinking issues, and
unhappy marriages were often a
motivator for women to get into
politics.
“Which could be going on
here,” she said.
Also discovered on the site
were complete plates, serving
dishes, tea cups and saucers.
Ms Watson said these fitted
with the idea she would be
hosting a lot during her political
campaigning.
“It’s more unusual to be getting
a big ceramic assemblage like
this, but with her work she’s
probably entertaining so many
guests and it plays into that
narrative of her still having to
be a good mother and wife, even
with her being active in women’s
rights,” Ms Watson said.
But Ms Watson said without
having been there in the 1890s it
was impossible to know whether
the tea cups were vessels used
to serve tea in or symbols of
political change.
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Image: South Australian Museum
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