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Kiwiana

Kiwiana celebrates unique icons that are a part of New Zealand culture and identity. For example Buzzy Bee, the ‘Sure to rise’ cookbook, hei tiki, Hokey Pokey ice cream, gumboots, Anzac biscuits, pāua, and spending summer at a bach. SCIS no. 1808296

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Pavlova

A delicious and contentious Kiwi favourite.

Ōtorohanga, the kiwi town

Ōtorohanga, the kiwi town

The kiwi - a flightless, fast-running bird with many mammal-like features - is New Zealand's national bird, and New Zealanders are often known as Kiwis. Kiwi are prominent in Ōtorohanga, with three...

Marmite

I miss Marmite so much I decided do a spot of historical research. Marmite Souffle anyone? How about whipping up a Marmite-y savoury pudding? Brew up a hot drink to defy the cold on an icy winter d...

Goodnight kiwi

Long before 24-hour television, Goodnight Kiwi bade viewers goodnight at the end of each day's broadcasting. The short piece was animated by Sam Harvey to lullaby 'Hine e Hine'. For a generation of...

Hokey Pokey

Short video about the classic New Zealand treat, hokey pokey.

Sure to Rise

Images of Edmonds, a favorite Kiwi brand that is synonymous with cooking and baking.

Footrot Flats

Animated movie Footrot Flats - The Dog's Tail Tale became the most successful Kiwi release of the 1980s. It also managed to win over viewers in Australia (where the animation work was handled). The...

Taihape, gumboot capital

Gumboots – black rubber Wellington boots – were celebrated by satirist John Clarke in his comic persona as laconic farmer Fred Dagg, who sang the boots’ praises in the 1970s. In the 1980s, sufferin...

Gidday Kiwis! cartoon

Gidday Kiwis! cartoon

Leader of the New Zealand First party, Winston Peters, dressed in a checked short and a baseball cap, yells out 'Gooday Kiwis!' as he bursts out of a large egg surrounded by a shower of iconic New ...

Fish and chips

The staple takeaway meal in New Zealand, fish and chips, has been popular for decades. The fish is usually elephant fish, blue warehou, red cod, or shark species. They are sold generically as ‘fish...

Hei Tiki

Video about the significance of the hei tiki.

Prince William and the Buzzy Bee

Prince William and the Buzzy Bee

This excerpt from TV One's 6.30PM News shows a famous photo opportunity from the 1983 Royal Tour downunder by Prince Charles and Princess Diana (with the recently issued baby William in tow). The s...

Sir James Wattie

Sir James Wattie at the Wattie's factory

Sir James Wattie with three of his long-serving employees by the production line for tinned spaghetti at the Wattie's factory in Hastings. From left: Sid Fox, John Cole, Jack Dooley, Wattie. Photog...

Phar Lap (1926-1932)

Article about the champion racehorse, Phar Lap.

Inside a hāngī

Inside a hāngī

This cross-section drawing shows the careful layering of food and cooking materials that produces a successful hāngī. . First a pit is dug in the earth and a hot woodfire is lit in the bottom with ...

Anzac biscuits

Anzac biscuits baked at home by Hart. Yum. Shared as part of Auckland Museum's Kai to Pie exhibition

ANZAC biscuits

Jandals

A pair of black and yellow rubber " GO NAKI " jandals.

The Four Square man

The Four Square man

This print by artist Dick Frizzell celebrates an icon of New Zealand life for many decades. The Four Square brand has been used to market this chain of grocery stores since 1924, when the company s...

Kowhai

A low-statured kowhai, perhaps a Sophora molloyi cultivar.

Bach at Te Hatepe

Bach at Te Hatepe

Summer in a bach beside the sea was a very Kiwi pastime last century. The number of baches has fallen since this colour photograph was taken in the mid-1980s. At this time people began to realise b...

A Buzzy Bee

A print of A Buzzy Bee by Robin White.

The Tip Top cow

The Tip Top cow

This prize-winning Jersey cow was one of a herd supplying cream to the Karaka Tip Top ice cream company in 2005. She was dressed by Tracey Collins to represent one of the four supreme ice cream fla...

Haka!

Issue No 184 October 8, 1969 - One of the Ngawhetutini group from Manurewa, which gave a demonstration at the recent Maori Competitions, is caught in a striking movement during the recent festiv...

Silver fern

A photograph of a New Zealand silver fern.

Morning tea

A Kiwiana themed morning tea.

Crown Lynn kiwi vase

Crown Lynn kiwi vase

vase, ceramic, Kiwi on a rock base standing next to fern-like flora, base and figure are a single cast, brown and maroon trickle glaze effect, hole in the flora and part of the kiwi's rear make the...

World-changing New Zealanders

Features 40+ definitive short biographies of New Zealanders who have changed or benefitted the world.

The People’s bird

The Kiwi has given its name to both a nation’s inhabitants and its culture.

The 1994 original world famous in New Zealand L&P ad.

The Gumboots song

The New Zealand gumboots song by Fred Dagg.

Afghan biscuits

Recipe for the traditional New Zealand Afghan biscuit.

New Zealand waiata with poi performed by Nga puna o wairea.

Otorohanga: kiwiana town of New Zealand

Celebrate the icons, heroes and heritage that make us uniquely ‘Kiwi”. Includes teaching resources.

21 BIG things in New Zealand

We may be a small country but we compensate with a bunch of very BIG things!

A Pukeko in a ponga tree

A Kiwi version of the 12 days of Christmas song.

Official website of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team.

Whites Aviation Ltd

Leo White's company took some of the most iconic aerial photographs of our beautiful country.

The native flora of New Zealand is unique as it evolved in isolation for millions of years.

Chesdale cheese

TV advert animation with Ches 'n' Dale singing about Chesdale block cheese.

Contains information about animals native to New Zealand.

Billy T James — Kiwi comedian and actor

Billy T James ranks as a key figure in the development of Kiwi comedy.

Recipe for whitebait fritters

How to make the best whitebait fritters.

Kiwiana quintessentially kiwi

Christchurch City Libraries explores our ‘kiwi-ness’ in this guide to Kiwiana.

Kiwi snacks ranked in order of greatness

Which Kiwi snack is the best? We've ranked them in order of greatness.

Article about a range of quirky objects that define what it is to be a New Zealander, or 'Kiwi'.

We don't know how lucky we are

A Kiwiana classic song, by comedian John Clarke.

Sweet as kiwi lump story

Article about the history of pineapple lumps.

Song about being kiwi.

Auckland bridge gets bungy

Auckland bridge gets bungy

Commercial bungy jumping began in 1988 after Kiwi entrepreneurs, A. J. Hackett and Henry van Asch developed their innovative idea (and rubber bungy cords) with the help of Auckland university scien...

Tip Top Ice Cream Company Ltd

Tip Top Ice Cream Company Ltd

On the look-out for a name for Len Malagan and Bert Hayman’s new ice cream company, they overheard a conversation at a restaurant where a gentleman used the expression ‘tip top’ to describe the ser...

Buzzy Bee for the Royal Baby

Buzzy Bee for the Royal Baby

Although the origins of the Buzzy Bee, one of New Zealand’s most recognised pieces of kiwiana are somewhat clouded, the buzzy bee is credited to Auckland brothers, Hec and John Ramsey. John Ramsey ...

Bach at Te Hatepe

Bach at Te Hatepe

Summer in a bach beside the sea was a very Kiwi pastime last century. The number of baches has fallen since this colour photograph was taken in the mid-1980s. At this time people began to realise b...

Kiwi sayings

Here are some common Kiwi slang words and their meanings.

‘Yeah Nah’ by Kiwi band The Slacks

The band that created the hit Big Aroha, The Slacks, have written another single, 'Yeah Nah'. It includes Māori and English lyrics, and comes with its own Kiwiana-packed video.

A jandal-shod journey through Kiwi pop culture. Kiwiana takes a light-hearted look at the fashion, art, architecture, attitudes, and icons (Buzzy Bees, Edmonds, Swanndri, Pavlova etc) we call our own.

Student's recreate classic kiwi song using only 'Kiwiana'

Very creative students from the Waikato Institute of Technology have recreated Poi E only using sounds from famous Kiwiana objects.

Miss Tubs: school students' Kiwiana ice-cream business

Six students, 5 from Westlake Girls High and one from Westlake Boys, have been making ice-cream in tubs for the past couple of years, after setting up a business as part of an extra-curricular proj...

1960 pictorial stamps

In November 1958 the Postmaster-General announced that a new set of KNZ-themed pictorial stamps would be issued.

Cross-cultural identity (TMCC16)

View or print the curiosity card about cross-cultural identity. Use this card’s fertile questions to inspire inquiry. Follow the link for more resources to help with teaching and learning.

A Level 5 unit focused on ways in which cultural and national identity develop and are maintained.

A Level 4 unit about designing and making wearable art accessories based on local culture and environment.

Fred Dagg Profile

A beloved comedian in New Zealand long after he chose exile in Melbourne, John Clarke was also the country's biggest-selling recording star.

New Zealand memorabilia to be auctioned

A huge collection of all things New Zealand is due to go under the hammer at Webb's auction house in Auckland.

New Zealand Retro: Kiwiana Food

From Anzac biscuits to cheese rolls, the culinary icons of New Zealand are discussed.

Wild and Cultivated Iron: Recent Sculpture by Jeff Thomson

Jeff Thomson has taken twentieth-century New Zealand, with its pot-holes and fence-posts, its corner stores and herring-bone cowsheds, and reconstructed it. His art traverses the old and the new Ne...

New Zealand has had three recognised flags – the United Tribes’ flag, the Union Jack and the current flag, officially called the New Zealand Ensign. In the 2000s the tino rangatiratanga (Māori sove...

The significance of the silver fern

The silver fern has been accepted as a symbol of New Zealand’s national identity since the 1880s.

Kowhai Knitwear

Kowhai Knitwear was a New Zealand fashion label from the 1960s that used motifs already becoming known as Kiwiana.

New Zealand Music Month - 31 reasons to love New Zealand music

This article provides information about 31 of New Zealand’s popular music stories.

Kiwiana Booklet

Visitors to this country may have come into contact with some of these items that are affectionately regarded by New Zealanders themselves as important and familiar parts of our national culture.

In 1994 New Zealand Post issued the first Kiwiana stamp series – a light-hearted tribute to the foods, toys, sports and lifestyles that define New Zealand’s culture.

Distinctively Kiwi Kiwiana

A quick reference to School Journal stories and articles designed to support curriculum planning mainly in Social Science. These titles support building knowledge and understandings about New Zeala...

Sounds like us – Kiwiana Radios

In 2007 Radio New Zealand introduced a campaign focusing on iconic and traditional New Zealand images. With some Kiwiana twists these images were developed into ten classic and quirky model radios ...

The new Kiwiana: It's in our food and on the money

New Zealand has changed but our national symbols are stuck in the past. From sheepdogs to beckoning gold cats, we discover what Kiwiana looks like today.

Kiwiana (New Zealand)

This page from Many Answers will guide you to reviewed websites and databases on Kiwiana.

First use of kiwi as unofficial national symbol?

Is this the first use of a kiwi to symbolise the nation in a cartoon?

This Kiwiana Inquiry Exemplar guide is a curated set of quality resources designed to inspire and support approaches to teaching through inquiry.

Find more information about Kiwiana on EPIC. Databases recommended: New Zealand Geographic and Australia New Zealand Reference Centre Plus. School login may be required.

Poi E

The Poi E music video from 1984.

Te Marae - A Journey of Discovery

Te Marae - A Journey of Discovery

The enormous significance to Māori of marae, as places of belonging where ritual and culture can be preserved, is explored in this Peter Turei-directed documentary. Made in conjunction with the NZ ...

Crown Lynn pottery

Crown Lynn pottery was once a popular household feature in New Zealand.

Every spring, rural traditions play out in miniature in the ring at the local pet day.

God Defend New Zealand

The story behind our national anthem, God Defend New Zealand.

Bye bye buzzy bee

Bye bye buzzy bee: Is kiwiana outdated?

This iconic tv show featured sheepdog trials from around the country.

Top results for Kiwiana from AnyQuestions

Kiwiana (New Zealand)

Kiwiana (New Zealand)

The culture of New Zealand is unique. It includes bits of history from various sections of society that go to make up...

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