Jacket, Antarctic Angels

This sleeveless denim jacket belonged to Diane Reidie (nee Bligh), an inaugural member of the Antarctic Angels. Above the right pocket on the front of the jacket is a round, light blue patch with 'ANTARCTIC ANGELS 13 1%' embroidered in purple thread. In the centre of the patch is an image of a black and white penguin riding a black motorbike. On the back of the jacket is the top rocker, 'ANTARCTIC ANGELS', the bottom rocker, 'INVERCARGILL', and ‘M.C.’ [motorcycle club].

The patch

The Antarctic Angels motorcycle club was established in Invercargill in 1969. The patch features the '1%' symbol, used by outlaw motorcycle clubs around the world. The term 'one-percenter' relates to a comment made by the American Motorcycle Association after a violent rally in 1947. The Association stated that 99% of the motorcycling public were law-abiding citizens, and only 1% were not. Those who wear the patch are proud to be among the 1% that conservative associations condemn. The '13' is apparently a reference to the 13th letter of the alphabet, M, and indicates that the wearer smokes marijuana.

Diane Reidie

Diane was born in Roxburgh in 1952. Her father was a hydroelectric worker, so the family moved frequently during Diane’s childhood. At 16 she went to stay with her grandmother in Timaru, and there had her first interaction with a motorcycle club. Diane recalls: ‘I befriended at school Valmai, reputed to be a "bikie" girl – I was hooked.’

Diane left school, worked in a bookshop, and hung out with the newly formed Highwaymen. She quickly realised ‘that in the 1960s a girl on the back (or pillion) seat on a motorbike is only there for one reason’ [for sex]. She felt that women were treated like ‘second-class citizens’ and that wasn’t good enough for her, so she saved and borrowed for a deposit on her own bike - a Triumph (1967 Daytona). She took the bike for a ‘run’ to Invercargill and never looked back. Life was, in Diane’s words, an adventure.

Outlaw clubs

As with many outlaw clubs in the 1960s, the members of the Antarctic Angels were young and membership was generally for a relatively short period. There were no club initiations, and gang membership was not yet seen as a lifelong commitment as it increasingly was from the mid-1970s (Gilbert, 84). Still, you weren’t guaranteed to get into the club; Diane suggests that you ‘had to be of a certain ilk’ and ‘had to be cool.’ The members were all employed, and according to Diane it ‘wasn’t respectable to be on the dole.’ Jobs were plentiful in the 1950s and 1960s and generally well-paid, so young people had flexibility in employment, mobility and money.

Diane does not recall any conflict between the Antarctic Angels and other outlaw clubs, but says there was tension between members of the primarily Pākehā club and Māori who came to work at the freezing works in Southland. The newspaper clippings saved by Diane record some criminal activity including an incident at the Ida Valley hotel, when seven members of the club were charged with offences ranging from disorderly behaviour to injuring with intent. Some of the articles also discuss a gang rape at the Alexandra Blossom festival. According to Diane rape and other forms of sexual violence happened ‘not infrequently’, and were to some extent part of the gang mentality.

Diane moved to Australia in 1974 and didn’t ride much after that. She kept her jacket, although she adhered to the rule adopted by many outlaw motorcycle clubs that you don’t wear your patch unless you’re on a bike.

References

• Gilbert, Jarrod. 2013. Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
• Thompson, Hunter S. 2009 [1966, 1967]. Hell’s Angels. Melbourne: Penguin Group (Australia).