KIWI: A CURIOUS CASE OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

How did the name for a flightless bird come to mean a New Zealander and a fruit that originated in China, while morphing into the badge for the national rugby league team and New Zealand's defence forces?

Not to mention becoming the brand name for everything from a rabbit trap to a bank, a term used for pilots who are no longer flying, and a definition of popular culture ('Kiwiana')? 

Kiwi: A Curious Case of National Identity tracks this most unpredictable evolution. Diving first into the natural history of this unique bird and its significance to Maori, the story spreads its wings widely, relating how 'kiwi' came to symbolise the emerging nation during the First World War - thanks in part to a brand of boot polish made in Australia. By the mid-twentieth century, while the bird population steadily declined, 'kiwi' was propagating everywhere from the Golden Kiwi lottery to the new 20-cent coin. 

After the coining of 'kiwifruit' to replace Chinese gooseberry in 1959, the emergence of this key export industry has taken the national symbol into a fruit salad of uses worldwide. Along the way there's been Kiwi the Melbourne Cup-winning horse, a couple of Kiwi airlines (neither of which flew for long) and TV's beloved Goodnight Kiwi.

Richard Wolfe's decades of Kiwiana collecting furnish the book with an array of colour photos, art, adverts and ephemera, making this an entertaining and visually stimulating work for Kiwis and kiwi fans of all feathers.

ISBN: 9781990042645
Imprint: Oratia
Publication Date: October 2024
Dimensions: 185mm x 250mm
Weight: 660g
No. Of Pages: 195