Strictly Kiwi

By GRAHAM HUTCHINS

RRP: $29.99, PB, Hodder Moa

From kiwifruit and Chesdale cheese to jandals and Swanndris; bungy jumping and marching girls to the Farmers Trading Company and the A&P show, Strictly Kiwi looks at the history and amusing stories behind our national icons and favourite things.

One person’s trash, another person’s treasure. There was a time when New Zealand Railway cups were strewn about the landscape, smashed and forsaken. These days railway cups have become valuable members of the Kiwiana family.

Kiwiana has come of age in the last 30 years. Today there is a distinct body of iconic Kiwiana items that speak to New Zealanders of home. Inanimate objects like the railways cup, the Buzzy Bee and paua shells have an important place in the Kiwiana lexicon, but other aspects of the Kiwi lifestyle have become Kiwiana-ised: Where we live and lurk (villas and bungalows, the bloke’s shed), what we eat (Tip Top ice cream, Marmite) what we drink (Lemon & Paeroa, tea), what we wear (Swanndri and gumboots), and what we sing (‘Ten Guitars’ and ‘Poi E’).

‘As Kiwi as corrugated iron’ is a common term yet it could just as easily be applied to many of the 50-odd Kiwiana items featured in Strictly Kiwi. Trash becomes treasure. Things we take for granted become objects of affection and national recognition. Kiwiana celebrates the business of being a Kiwi.

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