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Dunedin Kindergarten Association

Dunedin Kindergartens – Mana Manaaki Puawai O Otepoti

Published in 2013 on the occasion of the 125th jubilee – click here

Our History

The kindergarten movement began here in Dunedin in 1889 and we are proud to be the home of kindergarten in New Zealand. The first kindergarten opened on 10th June in the Mission Hall, Walker St (now Carroll St). Rev Rutherford Waddell, the Presbyterian minister, began planning an organisation to take children off the street in the very poor areas around his church. He asked the advice of Lavinia Kelsey, who had begun doing ‘something in the kindergarten way’ in her own private school, as well as that of Rachel Reynolds, a community leader who was concerned about the waifs of the notorious Walker St area, and Mark Cohen a social reformer interested in the Californian Free Kindergarten system. After a public meeting in March 1889, the Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association was set up with Rachel Reynolds as President and Lavinia Kelsey as the first honorary secretary. Five of our Kindergartens are named after people who believed in children and the Kindergarten movement. (Helen Deem, Jonathan Rhodes, Kelsey Yaralla, Rachel Reynolds and Richard Hudson Kindergartens). Dunedin Kindergartens currently operate 23 kindergartens.

The Association’s archives are held in the Hocken Collections – Uare Takoka o Hākena, University of Otago. There are also several personal collections of papers with links to the kindergarten collection. There is an online search engine here.

Useful resources on Dunedin kindergarten history:

• R.S. Reynolds Free Kindergarten golden jubilee celebrations 1913-1963, Dunedin
  [Hocken Collections]
• Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association (DFKA) Semi-Jubilee 1889-1914 [Hocken
  Collections]
• DFKA (1939) 50th Jubilee Booklet [Hocken Collections]
• DFKA (1949) 60th Jubilee Report 1889-1949 [Hocken Collections]
• [Dempster, D. & P. Varcoe, P.] Dunedin Kindergarten Association Centennial
  1889-1989 [Hocken Collections]
• Dempster, Dorothy (1986) From patronage to parent participation: The
  development of the Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association, unpublished
  Dip Ed thesis, University of Otago
• Bethell, Kerry (2008) ‘Not [just] for a name that we plead’: Fashioning the
  ideological origins of early kindergarten in Dunedin and Wellington, New
  Zealand, 1870-1913, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Victoria University of
  Wellington
• Bethell, Kerry (2011) Dunedin’s kindergarten pioneers: Some new stories. The
  founding of free kindergarten provision in Dunedin 1879-1980, Occasional
  Paper, University of Otago College of Education and the Dunedin
  Kindergarten Association

Documents and photos

• 50th Anniversary, Hocken Collections, 59th anniversary Hocken Collections – Uare Takoka o Hākena AG-287-076 S13-554a (pdf 110KB)
• A kinder garden rather than the gutter – Otago Daily Times, 7 July 2018 (pdf 3.2MB)
• DFKA 1895-1908 (pdf 1.7MB)
• DFKA Semi Jubilee 1889-2014 (pdf 3.0MB)
• DKFA Diploma Certificate – MS 1988_003 Hocken Collections – Uare  Takoke o Hakena (pdf 508KB)
• Dunedin  Kindergarten Association Centennial 1889-1989 (pdf 712KB)
• Dunedin Kindergarten Pioneers Bethell. K. 2011 (pdf 2.7MB)
• Dunedin Kindergarten Pioneers – Open lecture 23 April 2009 by Kerry Bethell (pdf 110KB)
• Dunedin Kindergarten Students c. late 1940s – early 1950s (pdf 728KB)
• Florence Brickell’s Kindergartener’s Certificate 1899 Hocken Collections – Uare Takoka o Hākena (pdf 626KB)
• Florence Brickell’s workbook 1899 (pdf 1.1MB)
• Helen Deem Centre (pdf 3.3MB)
• Helen Deem Centre for Pre-School Education 1955 (pdf 187KB)
• Kindergarten parents 1950’s 60’s Dunedin (pdf 1.1MB)
• Lavinia Kelsey – 1931 painting by Robert Field (pdf 151KB)
• ‘Madonna of the Factories’ Lithograph Dunedin 1925-6 (pdf 134KB)
• Pre-School Educational Centre Dunedin 1940’s (pdf 783KB)
• Pressed flower – work book c.1900’s (pdf 210KB)
• R. S Reynolds Kindergarten History Booklet 1913-1977 (pdf 143KB)
• Rachel Reynolds Kindergarten (pdf 1.7MB)
• Three teachers’ scrapbooks H May (2014)  (pdf 7.9MB)
• Walker St Kindergarten Otago Daily Times 22 June 1889 (pdf 51KB)

View the Dunedin Kindergarten Association website here.