WITH the Great New Zealand Muster no more, last month Waitomo District Council invited ideas for, “a new signature event that can be planned for future years, and which captures the identity and culture of Te Kuiti and the Waitomo District.”
What’s needed is an event to complement the highly successful New Zealand Shearing Championships held in town.
So how about a “National Wool Expo?” Or, for those who dislike that particular moniker, maybe a “National Wool Festival?”
Whatever the name, such an event could use the success of the national shearing competition to underline the message that coarse wool is the fibre of the future.
Innovative producers of wool products could be invited to set up exhibit stands; companies such as Woolchemy, which is currently closing in on a deal to provide wool for nappies sold in America.
This deal will be worth tens of millions of dollars, but it depends to some degree on educating farmers to supply wool to certain standards.
Woolchemy is a material technology company, founded by a former Mōkau woman Derelee Potroz Smith, who said she would be interested in a wool expo/festival at Te Kūiti, not least as a means of communicating with suppliers. And then there’s also the likes of Kerevos, a company with a factory at Hamilton, which blends coarse wools with corn starch to produce everything from knife handles to boats.
These are just two of the high-tech wool companies currently transforming the image of wool and pointing out its benefits as a remedy to toxic plastic pollution, which has penetrated the air, the sea and the food chain.
Te Kūiti would not have to re-invent the wheel to get the word out on the advantages of wool because the research has already been done.
For example, the Campaign for Wool could be invited to send its mobile “Wool Shed Containers,” which have been set up as mobile teaching aids for use in schools.
As for celebrity endorsement – why not aim high and think big. One of the world’s most famous names might be persuaded to record a video to open a national wool event here.
That would be King Charles III, a lifelong promoter of wool, who has done such video messages for wool events in the past.
Of course, at the other end of the scale members of wool-based craft groups (knitters, weavers and artists) from around the country would likely be interested, as would tourists in general.
I suppose somebody out there may be reading this and saying to themselves, “nice idea but where would we put all the people?” Or, “nice idea, but who would do all the work?”
My reply is simply that where there’s a will there’s a way.
It sticks in my mind that Mōkau is holding its National Bone Carving Symposium at Easter, an audacious event indeed, considering the 60 participants who are signed up to attend actually outnumber the population of tiny Mōkau Village.
Their event has been made possible by Maniaroa Marae generously opening its doors to visitors.
Here in Te Kūiti homeowners might be willing to do the same, by billeting visitors for a weekend in order to get the good word out on wool and its usefulness.
And as to the second objection, to me “all that work” is nothing to worry about.
As long as it is not pinching the name of somebody else’s event, there is nothing to stop a town like Te Kūiti from claiming that its wool event is a “national” one. Our National Wool Festival/Expo need not be huge in scale, it just needs to be effective in its message.
It could be small but perfectly formed, going for quality rather than quantity, with just enough pageantry and display stands etc to satisfy the likes of those TV news crews and online influencers, who come to town to see what’s going on.
We don’t need brass bands – just good communicators, who can tell the story of wool as the environmentally friendly wonder-fibre whose time has come.
We could aim to attract just enough visitors to fill up our usual accommodation outlets, plus maybe overflow accommodation donated by the pro-wool public. And above all, provide just enough educational resources to demonstrate – to mangle a quote from Mark Twain – that reports of the impending death of coarse wools have been wildly exaggerated.
