What is more Kiwi As, than a Kiwi? When and how did our unofficial national symbol arise? It seems that it was the cartoonist J.C Blomfield who put the Kiwi on the world stage as our familiar icon, 115 years ago.
The New Zealand Free Lance printed a J.C. Blomfield cartoon in which a plucky kiwi morphed into a moa as the All Blacks defeated Great Britain 9–3 in the first rugby test between Motherland and colony. This may have been the first use of a kiwi to symbolise the nation in a cartoon.
In 1905 Trevor Lloyd repeated this trope by depicting a kiwi unable to swallow Wales after the All Blacks’ controversial loss in Cardiff. When the ‘Originals’ won, they were shown as a moa.
Also in 1905, the Westminster Gazette broadened the imagery by depicting a kiwi and a kangaroo setting off for a colonial conference. By 1908 the kiwi was the dominant symbol for New Zealand in cartoons, especially sporting ones, having replaced images of moa, fern leaves, a small boy and a lion cub.
NZHistory
