The following events have been arranged for the Friends of Cambridge Museum. If you are not a member, please consider joining (Friends details here). If you’re curious about where you live and like learning about the past, it’s a great place to start. And for $20 a year, it is excellent value too. Join here. 

FRIDAY 23 MAY 2025
Talk by Matthew Gainsford, Marine Archaeologist
10.30 am, Te Awa, 1866 Hamilton Road

FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 2025
Talk by Craig Hoyle – “Excommunicated: Two centuries of complicated family history”
Craig Hoyle was born in Kirikiriroa Hamilton into the Exclusive Brethren, an isolationist sect that shuns social contact with the outside world. After facing interrogations and conversion therapy for his sexuality, Craig was excommunicated from the Brethren and lost his family in 2009. 

Today he is chief news director for the Sunday Star-Times. His book, Excommunicated, is a multigenerational memoir tracing 200 years of his family’s history, using letters, records and interviews to explore how his forebears became associated with the Brethren movement, and the subsequent impact over seven generations. Craig lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

FRIDAY 24 OCTOBER 2025
Talk by Josh Hansen – New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata
10.30 am, Te Awa, 1866 Hamilton Road

Last updated January 2025