'Don't Go' T-shirt

This t-shirt was designed by Stanley Palmer as an iteration of his album cover design for the protest song 'Don't go don't go, you've got to move, move Cecil' by Don McGlashan and other musicians.

The song protested against the New Zealand Rugby Union's proposed tour of South Africa in 1985 (Cecil Blazey was the Chairman of the Union), only four years after the bruising experience of the Springbok rugby tour to New Zealand in 1981. Many New Zealanders had objected to that tour because of South Africa's policy of racial apartheid. Protests had caused obstruction and the cancellation of games, and much violence between protesters, supporters and police.

Renewed protest activity in 1985 demonstrated that the same issues remained. The proposed tour was cancelled after a successful legal challenge.

However, in 1986 an unofficial team of All Black players went to South Africa independently. They were called the 'Cavaliers' and included 28 All Blacks who were scheduled to tour South Africa in 1985 (only John Kirwin and David Kirk didn’t go).

Stanley Palmer

Stanley Palmer was one of several artists who created work in response to rugby tours between the Springboks and All Blacks in the 1980s. This particular work references his interest in tessellated patterns, the Scottish Saltire, and the Maori tukutuku pattern 'standing up and sitting down'.