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Robynne Johansen; maker/artist; 1986; New Zealand
New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone Committee; producer; 1986; New Zealand
Overview
This placard represents New Zealand's nuclear-free stance in the 1980s, and was made by Robynne Johansen based on a concept by Larry (Lawrence) Ross (who founded the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone Committee in 1981 in Christchurch). This placard was used in protests for many years until recently.
This design has become one of the most famous and well-known of the New Zealand anti-nuclear symbols, and provided a unifying vision for the country, particularly in the years leading up to 1987 when the Labour Government passed nuclear-free legislation. It can be found in many other forms of protest material culture, such as badges, stickers, posters and T-shirts.
'CND' stands for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament which was launched in London in February 1958 (the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament began in 1959). British graphic artist Gerald Holtom designed the symbol that came to represent the movement.
The symbol can be read in different ways. It can symbolise a man with outstretched arms against the background of the globe. Holtom himself recalled: “I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it” (http://www.cnduk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=435&Itemid=131).
It can also be a cross formed by combining the semaphore signals for the letters N and D ('nuclear' and 'disarmament').
The symbol became an emblem of the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1960s and the counter culture. It gained currency internationally and has been used ever since to express the desire and determination for universal peace.