Te Arawhata has received an incredible gift from one of the Museum’s earliest supporters, Colin Gibbons.
1905 saw the first ever tour of the New Zealand rugby team beyond Australasian shores. This inaugural European tour consisted of 35 matches, with the New Zealanders winning 34, including a victory against France on New Year’s Day 1906. The tour was a triumph, and this famous team is today referred to as The Originals, or the Original All Blacks.
Many of these men would go on to serve New Zealand during the First World War. Of 93 All Blacks to go to War, 13 never returned home, including famed first captain of the All Backs, Dave Gallaher, who died at Passchendaele in 1917.
Gallaher is remembered as a rugby pioneer. His name was given to the Dave Gallaher Trophy which is contested whenever the All Blacks play France, and his statute stands outside New Zealand’s great fortress of rugby, Eden Park.
Gallaher is also the subject of an upcoming documentary created by Museum supporter, Jude Dobson.
Colin’s gift is one of 50 reproductions of the official team photo which included signatures of all tour members. Gallaher proudly sits in the centre with the famous silver fern across his chest.
Over a century later, this symbol is synonymous with Aotearoa New Zealand and is present at our turangawaewae on the Western Front: the New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata. A key motif of the Museum shows the fern growing from the same stem as the oak tree, which is the symbol of Le Quesnoy, the Town of Oaks.
The Te Arawhata team and the New Zealand Memorial Museum Trust thank Colin for his gift to the Museum – a taonga of a very proud moment of our shared history with France.
