Speaker: Selling the Dream: The Art of Early New Zealand Tourism
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Peter Alsop, in reply to
chief topia peehi turoa, ngati patu-tokotoko. Great essay in the book on the role of Maori in early publicity by Mark Derby. Tells of the expropriation of imagery too, incl the insult of never including the names of chiefs like this one. See the hand coloured glass slide of him in the sampler http://www.sellingthedream.co.nz/view-sampler/ .... His name is in our comprehensive reference appendix, noting we kept the book clear of attributions for a cleaner look.
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I love those Railways Studios posters ! Letham gallery had an exhibition a while back with some of the better ones, fantastic.
This is not bad as a reference either, a little wider than just the tourism posters.
[ http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Paste-Up-Hamish-Thompson/9781869621049 ]
A favourite of mine are those 50's/60's Dental health posters from the school murder house. I'd love to get hold of one of the healthy kiwi ones made up of fruit and vegetables.
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Peter Alsop, in reply to
Re the maori chief .... Great poster, enjoying it now in my dining room .... chief topia peehi turoa, ngati patu-tokotoko. Great essay in the book on the role of Maori in early publicity by Mark Derby. Tells of the expropriation of imagery too, incl the insult of never including the names of chiefs like this one. See the hand coloured glass slide of him in the sampler http://www.sellingthedream.co.nz/view-sampler/ …. His name is in our comprehensive reference appendix, noting we kept the book clear of attributions for a cleaner look.
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Some very fine artwork in these posters.
Why do we care so much what foreigners think of our scenery? We already know it's amazing. And it's not like most of us can take any credit for it. The geysers aren't hand-cranked...
I was amused recently when a Canadian friend, visiting NZ for the first time, discovered that we call ourselves "kiwis" after the bird, not the fruit.
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Peter Alsop, in reply to
Paste Up is a fantastic book, and much credit is fue to Hamish for that work. As you note, it covers the nz poster of all kinds through all eras. Selling the Dream is a drill down on tourism publicilty - posters, brochures, magazines and some other intriguing paper bits and pieces - until the 60s when tv and colour photography kicked in and the poster look really changed markedly. Hamish was very supportive of our book, nice guy to deal with.
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Hebe, in reply to
Oh that too! On my birthday list already, and if I don't receive it then beloved might find it in his birthday parcel a month later (we haf ways of ensuring obedience). There are a couple I would like for my wall, and I am not about to cut up a beautiful book. As for repro vs retro, I won't be buying authenticity, I just wanna look at the picture (as long it's a good-quality repro)!
BTW, I find the Maori posters a bit creepy and disrespecting for my wall -- each to their own opinion on that -- though intriguing to look at casually. I like the scenery and vegetation: Marlborough Sounds, kowhai blossoms among others. Helensville is odd though, as much as I love Kaipara Harbour. And having looked at the sampler again: New Zealand native flowers -- I have a collection of NZ flowery books, fabrics, and bits and bobs.
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Sacha, in reply to
the healthy kiwi ones made up of fruit and vegetables
teeworthy too
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Hebe, in reply to
Oh yes. We have been asking visitors what they think of New Zealand since there has been New Zealand.
Cringeworthy being at a media scrum and it's gone swimmingly until "Whaddaya think of..." comes out. I always wanted to yell "who gives a fuck we just want to hear you sing/act/whatever..."
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Hebe, in reply to
That retro-innocence vision of NZ as a South Pacific paradise is comforting.
Sadly not retro. I still meet plenty of North Americans and Europeans who still think the South Pacific is a paradise on earth populated by noble savages and all that bollocksI was more thinking of the innocence about the beauty of the land as compared with its innate instability: all them mudpools and geysers show natural forces are always at work underfoot. The noble savage nonsense is another thing again...
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
I find the Maori posters a bit creepy and disrespecting
Agreed. But it seems to be a bit of a theme in NZ history. For example, old coins:
Centennial half crown with a Maori maiden taking centre stage.
One shilling, 1947, warrior poised ready to strike.
Thruppence, 1933, two mere.
Just for contrast's sake, one penny, 1949, with what looks to my eyes to be a tui. Of the four old NZ coins I have with me in Beijing, 3 feature Maori motifs. Oops, make that 4 out of 5 - I missed the 1950 half penny featuring a tiki. Will attach photo forthwith.
I find it hard to believe that Maori would've had anything like the place in mainstream NZ society in the 1930s and '40s they do now, and if we're honest, we've still got an awful lot of wrongs to right. And in 1940 there would've probably still been a lot of people with personal memories of the Land Wars, plenty more with stories told by their own parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents. One wonders how they would've felt looking at that centennial half crown.
Like the posters, the coins seem to me to be another thread in the old Pakeha narrative of self-delusion: "Oh, yes, we treat our natives very well here, much better than the Australians, Americans or Canadians, not to speak of the South Africans. See how they like to sing and dance to welcome guests!" Or is it, as Peter says in the original post, also about creating a sense of national identity. Dunno. There would seem to be a book in figuring that out, if it hasn't been written already.
ETA: 1940 South African thruppence. Interesting comparison. I don't know enough about South Africa to decipher the patterns. My old Australian coins invariably stick to the fauna (and no, not the Aborigines, regardless of what their legal status may have been at the time).
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Peter Alsop, in reply to
"There is no such thing as a Native problem in these happy isles", was the official position. Guide Rangi though called it straight, to Helena Rubenstein and the First Lady to name a couple, however on how race relations really were, including Maori being not allowed in some establishments until the 1950s. I'm recalling from Mark Derby's essay in the book, which is a seriously compelling read on this topic of the role of Maori in early tourism and in eary publicity as well. It is a great piece of research. Did you also know 'Maoriland' was the first cable (then-twitter!) address for the Dept of Tourist and Health Resorts?
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
Did you also know ‘Maoriland’ was the first cable (then-twitter!) address for the Dept of Tourist and Health Resorts?
I didn't know that. Can't say I'm surprised, the name does seem to have been quite widely used back in the day, the Maoriland Worker, for example.
Of course, googling "Maoriland" now gets an awful lot of hits about land ownership, the Land Court, and so on.
In __Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, performed in the years 1814 and 1815, in company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden, Principal Chaplain of New South Wales__ (they really knew how to do book titles back then!) Volume 1, John Liddiard Nicholas tells an interesting anecdote on pages 10 and 11 about a discussion between Tippahee (Te Pahi) and the governor of New South Wales and other colonial dignitaries. Tippahee had protested that sentencing a man to hang for stealing a pig was cruel and unjustly severe. He explained that stealing an axe or other essential tool would deserve the death penalty, but not a pig, which he'd probably stolen out of hunger. The Governor explains the law about property rights, and that the punishment for theft is death. Nicholas reports Tippahee's reply thusly:
"Then," said Tippahee, "why you not hang Captain ----?" pointing to the commander of a vessel, whose name I do not immediately recollect, but who was then sitting at table;-- "Captian, he come to New Zealand, he come ashore, he tihi (stole) all my potatoes -- you hang up Captain ------"
Nicholas then explains that the company were quite impressed with his logic, all but the captain, who had indeed sent a crew ashore to steal the potatoes.
It's odd, the mixture of admiration and respect for the Maori, the disgust at the treatment they were subjected to by the crews of many passing ships, and the patronising contempt for the savages. And yeah, "no Native problem" indeed.
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I shall have to get a copy ordered for the Hocken tomorrow. A lot of the originals for the Railways posters are held in Archives NZ. They're worth a look if you get the opportunity.
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Peter Alsop, in reply to
Thx Peter, I droped Natalie Poland a note today. Hocken very helpful to the book with some scans they did for me of old Otago Witness annual covers - some delightful images including "Brown Sea Rovers" (though foot faulting for some of the cultural inappropriateness reasons discussed above). There is a very strong collection of those in the book for the Otago lovers. Hocken was also the only library that would photocopy for me the old annual reports of the tourist and rail departments, which was most helpful and fascinating reading. In years to come, all those reports are being digitised, which would have been nice for searching but i had to do it the old fashioned way! Thx Hocken.
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I love the kitsch juxtaposition of the posters at probably best linked to earlier by Chris W.
A picture of a lake, with the name of the lake.
A picture of a bird with the name of the bird.
A picture of a flower with the name of the flower.
A picture of a farming activity with the name of the activity.
A picture of a "dusky Maori maiden" with the word "Fascinating".:)
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Also note in the original post how a couple of the volcanos are depicted in (mild) eruption… Maybe not the best time to visit?
Trying to scare people off?
Can you imagine a “visit New York” poster illustrated with a mugging?
Hey its just a possible highlight… you probably wont actually get murdered. -
Peter Alsop, in reply to
Adventure tourism runs deep in our veins ..... The tarawera eruption was still being talked about in the early 1900s as part of the mystique and adventure inherent in a 6 week boat trip to the 'thermal wonderland'. Obviously perceived by the publicists as having a net benefit but, as you allude to, no doubt a put off to some as well. But, hey, we needed some points of difference right?
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
Can you imagine a “visit New York” poster illustrated with a mugging?
Now there's a concept for a range of tee-shirts
"Come to New Zealand... pst!... wanna buy a powerstation." -
Islander, in reply to
Agreed. But it seems to be a bit of a theme in NZ history. For example, old coins:
The sixpence had a huia on it….
If you have a Waitangi crown, it is worth a lot of money…
I think me & mine, as South Island Maori, decided to retreat from head-on clashes in my grand-dad’s time: he, and his, were sorting out some of the Land Court stuff, passing the info on to his children, and hoping things would change.
When he was dying (of cancer of the oesophagus, a gift of his years working with a tar machine on the county roads)he made sure his kids inherited his Maori land. Including the adopted Pakeha one-
and so, I – as trustee-executrix of my grand-dad’s 3rd child’s will- have learned the pace of courts. And how to ignore the vilenesses of the likes of Lhaws and others.
And how to stand strongly and exactly and with knowledge, against the stupidity of those who put ancestral heads on -(gag) teatowels! Or inappropriate posters. Et al--with you Hebe, on that kind of stuff- and seemingly innocent posters (with the rakatira's name in lower case yet-)
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
The sixpence had a huia on it….
If you have a Waitangi crown, it is worth a lot of money…Most of my old coins were found one way or another - it's amazing what shows up if you've got an eye open for it, and how many of those old coins were still in circulation (still legal tender or not, I don't know) when I was a kid. I think I may have a sixpence or two back in NZ - unless my mum, acting on what I told her when she was here last to throw out all the stuff I have stored at her place, just keep my books, disposed of my old coins. But I'm pretty sure I don't have a Waitangi crown, that would be far too expensive for my methods of acquisition.
Sounds like you had a pretty awesome grandfather. Knowledge is such a powerful thing.
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Hebe, in reply to
The sixpence had a huia on it….
I laughed at that: my Huia has a sixpence in his heart I'm sure. For me, Maori imagery on coins is more acceptable than unattributed/lower-case attributed images on advertising. Coins are of value; advertising is taking mana for someone else's profit. Teatowels are horrid.
Best wishes for a dry night Lilith and Isabel. The ground here is saturated already; I hope not too much more rain. The land in this suburb has dropped overall about 0.5m after Feb 22 last year; fortunately it looks like the riverbed near here has dropped further.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Thanks Hebe. For you also!
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Islander, in reply to
Sounds like you had a pretty awesome grandfather. Knowledge is such a powerful thing.
E Chris - I am so lucky. From my earliest childhood, I have known that whanau/korero/ aroha is the first part of real life: that ability to provide food (garden/sea garden/fishing of all kinds) and utilise it, is the second part of life,
and that - creativity? - the making of new &life enhancing & illuminating things(arioi never got here)was my lot-and that knowledge didnt come from my father's side of my family. To give my father his due, he did teach me about perspective (in the art sense.)
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Peter Alsop, in reply to
Some 'deep' posts to awake to ... A wide ranging kaupapa has emerged ... great to read. Looks like i may have to rethink my enjoyment of the Maori chief in the dining room .....
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
(still legal tender or not, I don’t know)
coins and notes never lose their value. Got an old one pound note? The reserve bank will give you two dollars for it.
every year the Crown accounts list a liability in respect of the unreturned (and almost certainly never to be returned) old currency.
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