Te Kuiti and Districts Historical Charitable Trust committee member Russell Aldridge with the NZ Shears exhibition celebrating 40 years of the Te Kūiti event. Photo: Dan Tasker
The Te Kūiti Museum and Gallery celebrated the 40th edition of the New Zealand Shears with a special exhibition on Saturday.
Shearing memorabilia was to the fore, the exhibition displaying a shrine of everything that has made the NZ Shears great since its inception in Te Kūiti in 1985.
Te Kūiti and Districts Historical Charitable Trust committee member Russell Aldridge said the exhibit was a salute to the impact shearing has had on the local community.
Te Kuiti and Districts Historical Charitable Trust committee member Russell Aldridge with the NZ Shears exhibition celebrating 40 years of the Te Kūiti event. Photo: Dan Tasker
“Ever since we started the museum in this building in 2006, we tried to cover nearly everything around the district with a big emphasis on stuff in the King Country. The shears has always been a major business in town here once a year, very well patronised,” Aldridge said.
“We’ve been lucky in the King Country to have had so many real top shearers. It started from when Snow Quinn was champion and Tom Brough, and then through to the McDonalds and Fagans.
“We’ve had a great run of really top shearers here and that’s why we’re so keen on presenting this.
“If people care to spend a bit of time and read what we’ve got here and take it all in, it’s quite educational. It gives people, young people especially, a bit of education into the shearing industry, which is good,” he said.
A summary of how the shears got started through thousands of volunteer hours, listing the first open shearing finalists, former presidents, life members and committee service awards adorn the main part of the display.
A sketch of the Te Kūiti shearing statue, along with signatures of notable dignitaries from when it was erected in 1994, was on display at the Te Kūiti Museum and Gallery during the New Zealand Shears last week. Photo: Dan Tasker
Along with photos from previous events including the first King Country Shears event in 1985, it outlines innovations to the event including the ‘Running of the Sheep’ and pays tribute to notable shearers and tips the hat to Te Kūiti, known as the ‘Shearing Capital of the World’ since 1994.
A framed sketch of Te Kūiti’s shearing statue, which was opened in 1994, is arguably one of the most interesting part of the exhibit, noting key drivers and insights relating to the statue project.
A shearing documentary plays on a small television alongside cuts of wool, old sacks, shearing slippers and multiple generations of shearing kit, including an old Stewart ball-bearing sheep shearing machine.
