Zealandia, or The Britain of the South
So the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary has rebranded itself to Zealandia, even got in the new Prime Minister to help them launch.
I find the name pretty ridiculous actually. No doubt I’ll get used to it, but for me “Zealandia” is that rather outdated female representation of colonialist ambitions for New Zealand, a southern Britannia. One of the early colonial boosters even wrote a book called “Zealandia, Britain of the South” which you can read in all its amusing fullness here. (The racist bits are less amusing, of course.)
Later, Zealandia appeared on the New Zealand coat of arms, where she remains to this day, and had statues built in her name, such as this Boer War memorial at Palmerston.
And in surfing about for more info on Zealandia, I discovered a piece that must surely be the last word on the subject. Written by the great Denis Glover for the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand :
And so rose up Zealandia, full-armed… […] On music scores and programmes she wore her cloche helmet – a sad sort of coal scuttle – with a sword cast carelessly at her feet, the right hand clutching a cornucopia pouring forth apples and pears while from the left there dangled the caduceus. Depending on the skill of the artist, her expression ranged from vacuous insipidity to a crystal-gazing trance.
OK, so Zealandia is also the name that geologists more recently have given to the long-vanished island continent that our islands are the diminished remainder of; so the Sanctuary at least have some basis for the name.
It still strikes me as a bit lame though.
che tibby
7 December 2008, 08:16 #
a*bit* lame doesn’t begin to describe it.
outright silly is better.
Robyn Gallagher
7 December 2008, 13:21 #
It surprises me that the renaming seems to have been done with complete ignorance of lady Zealandia. Do they not know how to google?
It sounds all a bit like something out of an old science fiction story, where the Zealandia sanctuary is the only place that escapes The Plague of 2000.
Giovanni
7 December 2008, 20:42 #
There have also been several ships by that name. One collided with the Elen Lamb (or with a stocky swimmer by that name, that much is unclear) off the coast of Auckland in 1922 but the damaged was repair in time for the ship to continue on its journey to Rio de Janeiro without missing the scheduled outbreak of smallpox on board. A lucky name, in other words. (More info courtesy of the NZETC archives at http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Bre01Whit-t1-body-d44.html)
This episode reinforces my belief that those who engage in rebranding should themselves be rebranded according to the older meaning of the term.
Alan
8 December 2008, 12:14 #
Robyn: I like it. You’ve got the start of a Conchords song right there.
Giovanni: and there was also the warship, too.
susan
9 December 2008, 09:16 #
Oh dear, how very cringeworthy. I really don’t know about being a member of the sad coal-scuttle brigade, or even of Southern Atlantis.
Alan
9 December 2008, 22:55 #
Actually, Southern Atlantis would be cool. It’s just the Britain of the South bit I have trouble with. :-)