In 1973, Roger Giles, then and now the president of the Devonport Folk Music Club, lent me the 'Morris On' vinyl LP, but I could do nothing withthe music at the time. I played effing Swiss stuff from tablature on a Hohner Club melodeon, badly, since I yet had to understand the instrument (tuned to effing F, too) that I was maltreating.

 

I became aware of Morris Dancing in New Zealand when I visited the Whare Flat Folk Festival in Dunedin in 1976.

 

In 1977 I learnt through a flatmate, Malcolm Clapp, a dancer and musician originally from Bristol, about the City of Auckland Morris Dancers. By accident rather than design I learnt five Morris tunes, on the understanding I would NEVER play them in public.

 

In 1979 Malcolm suddenly went to Rotorua. Guy Movat had taken over from Nigel Bannalek (I think) as the Squire, and the Maskell family and Robert Rayne were the main stay of CAMD when I joined. Theresa Maskell played three Morris tunes on her accordeon, but she was needed as a dancer, so I became the musician in February 1979.

 

Numbers have been up and down since then. The worst time was 1982, when the practices were attended by John Jones (squire), Robert Rayne, Robyn Bostock and myself. I became a radio amateur, just in case, but remained with the CAMD. I was the only CAMD musician then, due to a general perception that I, too, would not tolerate competition. After John Philip (founder of the Pride of Holland Street in Wellington, then with Rosewood in Palmerston North) joined us, we went through a prosperous period for a while. There was a North Island Morris Tour with three CAMD sides dancing at the same time.

 

Today we have frequently two sides and three musicians at practices, though getting them to do dance-outs is a bit harder now than it was fifteen years ago.

 

I am there for the music rather than the history, so I will leave the story for now.

 

Henry Falkner

 

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From Chris Brady

There are tantalising snippets of information about the history of the morris in New Zealand. Roy Dommett - in his 1979 lectures at: http://www.ashe.greatxscape.net/Pages/rdsidtue.html states: "Now, Percy Manning lived in Oxford ... he employed ... a geologist assistant ... called Carter who was paid to go walking through the Cotswolds looking for Morris relics. ... That's how you discover that at about 1870 quite a few Morris sides emigrated en-bloc to New Zealand." Has anyone has researched the old newspapers for references to these immigrants? If an entire side emigrated then they would surely have danced on the ship and continued to dance when they got there? AND if whole sides emigrated to New Zealand, what about to Australia too?

In the 1930/40s one of the Cambridge University Morris Men involved in the Travelling Morris was John Oliver, a New Zealander. Some info. as to the background of Cambridge MM, John Oliver and other worthies of the then revival can be found at this rare site: http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/round/history/hugh/coales.htm When John returned to N.Z. he was instrumental in furthering the morris especially in Christchurch during the 1940s/50s. After that it all seemed to die out.

But in the 1970s, with a feeling that there SHOULD have been some folk activities in N.Z. brought over by the many thousands of English immigrants, and after much research in the various public library catalogues, I discovered that John was still alive and living in Nelson. And so I immediately flew down to visit him. It was like striking gold. He was most welcoming and he loaned me an amount of kit and material which subsequently helped to set up the City of Auckland Morris and indeed their first kit was the old Christchurch kit of the 1940s!!

Apparently there was a Courtney Archer in the 1940s team, who was a miller in Christchurch. He had some black & white film of the team dancing from the 1940s but I think this got destroyed. Various photos and articles of the morris are described in a Folk Magazine published by John Oliver during the 1940s. I believe that Christchurch and Auckland Public Libraries have copies, as well as C#H in London. There were 14 editions.

Cecil Sharp-style folk dance and song was very much the vogue during the 1940s in NZ. The NZ Branch of the EFDSS was the very first overseas official branch. Indeed there were more EFDSS groups in most of the towns in NZ than there are RSCDS groups now!! The groups were mainly of women, who danced in long skirts and white plimsoles. They danced to EFDSS 78rpm records. They only ever danced EFDSS 'official' dances - that is those dances published by Sharp in the Country Dance Books, Morris Books, and Sword Book. They totally ignored the social quadrilles and ballroom dances of the time.

I guess the early 1950s newspaper photo of the ladies of Wellington dancing Flamborough is typical. See: http://chrisbrady.itgo.com/morris/nzdance.htm I remember morris dancing in Wellington in the late-1970s, and after a dance some elderly ladies came up and said that they used to do morris dancing. Not realising the significance of them they got ignored, and much like the 'last Sussex morris dancer' that Lucy Broadwood dismissed. I guess these ladies were never sought out and interviewed?

And I wonder if anyone ever interviewed John Oliver before he died, or tried to track down the other members of his team? They'd all be gone now though. Every summer throughout the war and afterwards annual Folk Dance Summer Schools were held, usually organised by John Oliver. Descriptions of the activities at these can be read in the Magazines mentioned above. There is supposed to be an archive of material dedicated to John Oliver somewhere in New Zealand but I have no details. There is nothing on the web about him apart from the above mentioned web site. If anyone can help to complete the picture I would be grateful so that I can set up a web site in his memory. Thanks.

Chris B.