EXHIBITION

Secret Lives of Stencils exhibition. Photo: Annette O'Sullivan

Wool bale stencil exhibition impresses

WORDS: David Watt IMAGES: Annette O’Sullivan and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

The Secret Lives of Stencils, an exhibition celebrating a 150-year history of the New Zealand wool bale stencil, is generating excitement in urban and rural areas around the country.

Dr Annette O’Sullivan, of Massey University School of Design, who did the research, design and photography for the wool bale stencil project – an extension of her PhD on the history of wool bale stencils – is delighted by the responses from people visiting the exhibition. Being able to talk to people and getting their endorsement to preserve the memory of a significant aspect of our pastoral heritage that is fast disappearing was important.

“This has been a great project and I am so delighted to have the support of the board, management and staff of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to take this exhibition to places I hadn’t thought of when it was first launched back at Totara Estate in the South Island in November 2020. Much has happened since then, not least being interrupted by Covid-19, but we are back on track to get to some key places in New Zealand where I would like to show the exhibition,” says Dr O’Sullivan.

An historic wool bale stencil. Photo: Annette O'Sullivan

It was very appropriate for the exhibition to have its beginnings at Totara Estate. In 1860, wool made up 90 percent of New Zealand’s export earnings. Within six years Totara Estate, one of the places cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, had an impressive 17,654 sheep, a significant contribution to the region’s wool clip. It seems ironic that it took a downturn in wool processing, combined with an excess of sheep meat, that led William Davidson to send the first-ever shipment of frozen mutton from Totara Estate on a three-month journey from New Zealand to England in 1882. In the process he launched an industry that generated prosperity and strengthened the place of sheep farming in the New Zealand economy. This exhibition has been to Highwic, and in early spring it was brought down to Greytown to Cobblestones, which features early agricultural practices and equipment in New Zealand and has a woolshed featuring many varieties of wool stencils used in the Wairarapa farming community. Speaking at the opening of the exhibition last September at Cobblestones, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Board Chair, Hon. Marian Hobbs, praised the local heritage organisation, Heritage Wairarapa, in conjunction with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga staff and local farming identities, for bringing this impressive exhibition to the attention of local residents and visitors to the Wairarapa. “By joining forces in this way, it is a perfect fit for our Vision: ‘Tairangahia a tua whakarere; Tātakihia nga reanga o amuri ake nei, Honouring the past, Inspiring the Future," said Marian to a packed reception. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Chief Executive Andrew Coleman echoed those thoughts and drew on his own years growing up in the farming community of Taihape, commenting that the exhibition allows visitors to experience our worldrenowned Kiwi farming ingenuity; an early example of the New Zealand brand going worldwide. He said this was a story path all New Zealanders should know.

From Cobblestones, this exhibition made tracks to Taranaki to be a feature piece in the programme of the inaugural Taranaki Heritage Month in October 2022.

Former South Taranaki Mayor, Ross Dunlop, who farms west of Hawera, displayed the exhibition in his wool shed to visitors over Labour Weekend as part of Heritage Month. It then departed to Aotea Utanganui, the Museum of South Taranaki at Patea, where it has attracted further attention.

Greytown exhibition opening; from left Joseph Gillard, chair, Heritage Wairarapa; Dr Annette O’Sullivan; Hon Marian Hobbs Board chair and CE Andrew Coleman Dr O’Sullivan is working with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to take the popular exhibition to the Hawke’s Bay and to Tairāwhiti in early 2023. She is keen to feature it at historic woolsheds in these areas, which will also be the subject of an upcoming book that she is working on. “The story of woolsheds is not just an exploration of the buildings and histories told through their contents. It is also a celebration of the contribution of farm workers to the success of the wool trade. Their story is told through the places where they worked and lived and the objects they made and used. Many of their names and dates are inscribed on walls in sheds and huts in a social history of shearers and musterers who worked and travelled across the country,” says Dr O’Sullivan.

She says this previously untold history of the wool industry is pieced together through physical evidence, archival and historical information and personal recollections. The memories of shearers , wool pressers, wool handlers and rouse-abouts add a human voice to the narrative.

“The inspiration for this book, which I hope to get to market in 2024, came from my PhD research on Wool Bale Stencils – A Design History of New Zealand Branding and Visual identity 1850-2019.” According to Dr O’Sullivan, “Public interest in the Secret Lives of Stencils exhibition and repeated requests that I have received for the publication of a book has convinced me that there is an audience for this subject. Taking this exhibition around the country with the support of my friends in Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, makes this challenge all the more exciting.” n

Totara Estate. Photo: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga