Inspiration Corner
Alumni connections are literally in the foundations of Otago University’s newly-built BNZ Bloomberg Markets Lab Te Taura Takata.
Article from Otago University | New trading lab builds on enduring heritage
Alumni connections are literally in the foundations of the newly-built BNZ Bloomberg Markets Lab Te Taura Takata.
Situated on the ground floor of the Otago Business School (OBS), the state-of-art trading lab will provide students and faculty with access to real-time and historical financial data, news and analysis. It will be used extensively in Investment, Behavioural Finance, Corporate Finance and Banking courses.
It is one of the largest academic trading labs in New Zealand with 12 Bloomberg Professional terminals, giving students access to the same Bloomberg trading platform used by the world’s leading investment companies, banks, corporations and government agencies.
Teaching in the Lab began over the summer and an official opening will be held at a future date.
Director of the Lab, Dr Muhammed Cheema, says the Lab’s materials will help students with their assignments, as well as their honours and master’s theses. “The use of the terminal is a major asset for students in the job market,” says Cheema.
Honouring the strong links the OBS site has to Dunedin’s trading history, the Lab is the first trading room in the country to include a cultural narrative in its design that reflects the historical importance of the site to both Māori and settlers.
“Before the extensive land reclamation around Otago Harbour Te Awa Moana Ōtākou, the setting of the Otago Business School would have overlooked the water,” says Jennie Henderson, Prospect Researcher in the Development and Alumni Relations Office.
“The harbour has always been rich in resources and underpinned significant economic activity where, in the early 1800s, local Kāi Tahu traded pigs, flax, potatoes and other resources with European sealers and whalers.”
The 1848 Scottish Free Church settlers also traded with Kāi Tahu nearby, to the south of the OBS, in the present-day Exchange area. This site was an important tauraka waka (landing place) and mahika kai (food gathering area) for local Kāi Tahu. It became a busy site of intercultural and economic exchange.
Later, as the location of the BNZ building and the Stock Exchange building, along with other banks and businesses, this area was the economic centre of early Dunedin.
Gifted the name Te Taura Takata (The Ties That Bind) by the University’s Office of Māori Development, the design elements of the trading lab space work to illustrate the past, present and future significance of the room.
Artist Madison Kelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe), had the challenge of capturing this visually.
“The design for this trading space speaks to a meeting of two fishing lines – one of iron and one of bone – across a dynamic whakapapa of moana, whenua, kaimoana and people,” says Kelly.
Lab continues financial and alumni connections
As well as reflecting Dunedin’s trading history, the Lab continues historical connections between the University and Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) and New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX).
