Astral Sligo - Great Kiwi Firsts

Astral is a travel writer and editor who now can spout random facts about the country she loves to anyone who cares to listen (now you have this book, you can too). Her first best-selling book, Kiwi Toasties, was the first New Zealand book to be shaped like a piece of toast.

www.greatkiwifirsts.com

ASTRAL SLIGO

First published in 2012

Copyright Astral Sligo 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand

ISBN 978 1 877505 22 5

Internal design by Brittany Britten
Cover photograph: Crowds greeting New Zealand aviatrix Jean Batten after she landed at Croydon, having flown from Australia, 24 October 1937.
Set in 10.75/14 pt Sabon LT Pro by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed in Australia by Ligare Pty Ltd, Sydney

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated, with mucho aroha, to Mum, my foremost teacher and friend, and Dad, who showed me how to enjoy history.

CONTENTS

It is New Zealands role to send out its bright young men and women to help run the rest of the world. And they go, not hating the country of their birth, but loving it. From this loving base they make their mark on the world.

Margaret Mead, American anthropologist

We are known for our pioneering spirit, for our ability to see beyond the strictures of what-hasnt-been-done-before, and New Zealands intensely picturesque landscape is a backdrop for the mental landscape where ideas and fortitude flourish.

New Zealands existence makes a difference, and within the pages of this non-linear social history book youll find many examples of people who contributed to their community, country and the world.

Our landscape inspires us, our isolation pushes us to make our own way. The first people of New Zealand followed the stars to get here; in settling Aotearoa, the Maori people laid the foundations for our trailblazing Kiwi spirit. They were the first New Zealand agriculturalists, first horticulturalists, first to develop fortified citadels, first record-breaking sailors, first to search the skies and find knowledge from the stars, first to put their feet in the golden sands of an East Coast beach and first to negotiate the barrels of a West Coast beach.

In defending their land from incursions, they were innovators of trench warfare, accomplished and tactical warriors, yet in later years (Te Whiti at Parihaka) they showed the Europeans how to achieve strong and effective peaceful protest. Undoubtedly the Maori people notched up thousands of firsts as they crossed the seas in waka, explored forests for strong trees to provide shelter, and caught the first kaimoana platters to feed the first New Zealand families. So many firsts that are not told in written history. To a certain extent, the same can be said for many a first achieved by women, many of whose firsts have not been written down, or have been lost to time.

In selecting first stories to share, I admit to feeling that the reach of the book is vaster than one book alone. I find it difficult to imagine living anywhere other than New Zealand, where we were the first in so many arenas. First to give women the vote, first to really push for a nuclear-free status, first to see the sun (until Samoa changed its dateline), first to push the boundary between what is known and what is unknown in so many ways. Lets face it, were pretty brilliant!

In my research, I found that history, despite what we may think, is endless. There are so many hidden nooks and crannies, so many stories to delve into, and vast seas of knowledge, whether curated or not, that can help bring the past to a clearer light. Were surrounded by it, but sometimes we just dont know where to look. Within the book I have tried to connect some of the firsts, and, where there are memorials or relics of the past, have mentioned these where possible, so that they may act as touchstones for the stories that you read here. Although its impossible to have a first-hand experience of that first moment, its nice to know when you can have a brush with a significant or intriguing part of our history.

Were a nation of contradictions. While we are keen to say dont fence me in, we are also quite good at fencing other things in and have been described by some as having a rather insular and parochial yet outward-looking society.

A few observations: many of the history makers within this book did not achieve their first because they were driven by the need to increase their fortune or popularity; they got there because they saw that there was a lack or a need for someone to do something, to provide answers for questions that may not have been verbalised. If you just go downstream all the time, and your thoughts always travel in the same direction, there is little likelihood that you will achieve a first.

Innovation seems to incubate (or fester, depending on your field) when your mind is not on the taskand a small spark of an idea, or a fully blown scheme may develop as youre paddling down a river in a bathtub, or running along pushing a milk-cart. Some firsts are accidental. Some are directed happenstance.

New events (firsts) in a lifetime are generally not created in the flash of some mad lightning-bolt moment of brilliance. It takes hours of effort, months of dedication, and sometimes years of just figuring it all out.

Kiwi ingenuity is the ability to spot the potential in the wide world, to put things together that dont normally go together, to take non-related disciplines and see what happens when they are forced into unanticipated collusion and collision. Everything builds on what has come before; although there is only a chance of doing one thing one way, there are many firsts that lead to a first. By utilising existing pieces of knowledge, skill and insight and using our personal energy, time and talent we shape new firsts.

The personality-profile of us as a nation is one characterised by self-reliance, innovation and, perhaps our Achilles heel, reticence. Whether it be for fear of being accused of being a tall poppy, or the genuine wish to not make a fuss, we can sometimes keep our problems and our triumphs to ourselves, which means we may miss out on an opportunity to share a problem, and to proclaim a first. A problem shared may be a problem halved, but a first success is a first amplified. Sometimes we may fear being thought of as the oddball, the strange person who retreats to the back shed and tinkers away because we believe that there is a better, quicker way of doing something. Really, what may be thought of as delusional behaviour, should be reclassified as a vision of the future. Expose your idea to the light of day and see if it sticks together in the glare of that crisp New Zealand light.