Scandinavian Club of Manawatu Inc.
Photo Album - The embroidered banner
The banner commissioned by the Scandinavian Club of Manawatu from the Manawatu Embroiderer's Guild, during the presentation ceremony on Monday night, 2 October 2000, in anticipation of the pending the 135th anniversary of Scandinavian settlement in Upper Manawatu and - especially - the 130th anniversary of Scandinavian ssettlement in the Palmerston North area.
The side panels, travelling clockwise and starting at '1871', represent (1) the ship Celaeno that brought the first immigrants for Manawatu in 1871; (2) the bush-burns the marked the beginning of transformation of the region from virgin forest to farmland; (3) sawmilling, and in particular, the firm Richter, Nannestad & Co. founded by three Norwegian immigrants; (4) the cottages built by early settlers, in this case that of the Swedish Andersen family which in the 1980s was moved from the former Stoney Creek Scandinavian block to Clifton Tce., where it has been restored; (5) the Lauridsen family's blacksmith shop in George Street, P.N.; (6) women's work - a spinning wheel; (7) Stoney Creek School - now called Whakarongo School; and (8) the New Zealand-born generation, in this case a representation of Lydia Christensen-Dahlstrom, with Otto Tiller's bike, in the late 1890s.
The lower panel includes traditional hardanger embroidery.
The banner subsequently took its place as a backdrop at the pending 'Hilsen fra Skandinavien' exhibition at the Science Centre & Manawatu Museum in November 2000. Then, seven months later, it became a permanent wall hanging in the Family History section of the New Zealand & Pacific Room at the Palmerston North City Library.
Some of the embroiderers, who had just explained various segments of the banner during the handing-over ceremony, including Elizabeth Berkahn (4th from left), who designed it, Betty Crawford (5th from left) who did the hardanger embroidery, and Ann Hill (extreme right) from our club.
Dr Russell Poole, from the English Dept. at Massey University, who specialises in ancient Icelandic and Scandinavian recorded myths and legends, speaks to the Manawatu Embroiderer's Guild and members of the Scandy Club during the handing-over of the banner.
Scandy Club members who were in costume, respond to a request to explain the origins of and significance of their respective costumes to members of the Manawatu Embroiderers' Guild. They are from left: Jack Curtis, Ella Hyde, Ann Hill, Joan Curtis, Rachel Silver, Monie Hansen and Anne Odogwu.
Manawatu Scandy Club and Manawatu Embroidery Guild members make the most of their chance to see the banner up close for the first time. Elizabeth Berkahn, the designer, is caught in 'mid-movement' at the right. Even for most of those who did embroidery on the banner, this was the first time they had seen more than their own special part of it.