Now Dunedin woman, former punk performance poet and Dunedin music scene mainstay Gaylene is donating her large collection of concert posters and band photos to the Hocken Library.
Involved heavily in the underground band scenes in Auckland and Dunedin from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, Gaylene, who had her surname removed by deed poll, recorded the whole period in photographs.
Bands and performance poets, including the Ha Has, Gaylene and the Undertakers, the Dead Sea, the Bats and many other less politely-named groups, feature in her photo albums.
After moving house recently and concerned her health was deteriorating, the 47-year-old said she decided to offer her whole collection, which also includes her own diaries, unpublished manuscripts, videos and tapes of her performances, to the library.
Hocken collections curator of archives and manuscripts Anna Blackman said the library was pleased and grateful to receive the collection.
It was valuable in a historical sense because Gaylene had dated the photos and named all the people in them.
"The [photo] albums particularly document a side of cultural life in Dunedin that could be easily lost."
While it had cost her "an arm and leg" to take and develop all her photos, she appreciated them now, and would miss the items.
"I spent a lot of life dedicated to this band scene.
"It's a good history and I think this is the appropriate place for it," Gaylene said.
