Kiwiana Eh What?
Buzzy bees, gumboots and jandals, eh what? You’d be forgiven if you thought I was talking some foreign language. Kiwiana is the term used to describe popular culture or icons in New Zealand and encompasses such items as food, clothing, toys, sayings and songs. Generally items that are labelled Kiwiana are items that are unique or common to New Zealand.
Items classified as Kiwiana
- All blacks – Rugby Team
- Bach or Crib – Holiday Home
- Buzzy Bee – child’s toy
- Chocolate fish – Marshmallow shaped sweet covered in chocolate
- Footrot flats – Cartoon, depicting farm life
- Gumboots – Black rubber boots
- Haka
- Hei Tiki
- Jandals – rubber foot wear
- Jaffas
- Kiwi
- Marmite
- Pavalova
For a comprehensive list see Wikipedia
Kiwiana and what it means to me
Many, many special memories revolve around what has now become Kiwiana. Tootling along in the car on a family trip and a stop somewhere was made for an ice cream, or popping down to the local dairy and it would be hokey pokey ice cream rolled on top of a nice crunchy cone.
A firm dessert favourite is the pavlova and a family gathering wasn’t complete without the cream and strawberry topped meringue. The perfect Pav was crunchy on the outside and all gooey on the inside.
A number of New Zealand icons are based around farming. One such icon was Footrot Flats, a cartoon strip written by Murray Ball which appeared in newspapers depicting the life of sheep farmer Wal Footrot and his border collie dog “The Dog” This was followed up with books and a movie.
Footrot Flats Book & Tiki – Icons of New Zealand
Another farming based icon was the fictional character, Fred Dagg played by John Clarke. Fred depicted rural NZ life by dressing din a black wool singlet and wearing gumboots, attire typically worn by farmers in the 1970s. Famous for songs such as “If it weren’t for your gumboots, where would you be you would be in the hospital or in the infirmary” and “We don’t know how lucky we are”
Creative Inspiration
The outcome of having a childhood surrounded by Kiwiana is that you might be compelled to create your own and so I did! A lot of my creations come from things I grew up with and have inspired my own version of Kiwiana. Felt pennants were sold as souvenirs and sometimes they where sewn on blankets, attached to the aerials of cars or even bikes, they form the basis of my Kiwi cards. A popular sweet which is still available today was the aeroplane lolly which I also use in one of my cards. Follow this link to discover what else I make.
Kiwi Card using Pennants
