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Overview
This poster was designed and printed by artist David Blair for protests against two of the games in the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand 1981: against the Auckland team in Auckland on 5 September, and against the All Blacks on 12 September in Auckland (which was the last test of the tour). It is tall and narrow so that it could be pasted onto lamp posts.
The Springbok tour was a seminal event in New Zealand's political and social history, exposing deep rifts in society. Many people objected to the tour because of South Africa's policy of racial apartheid, and many questioned racism at home. Protests caused obstruction and the cancellation of games, and violence escalated between protesters, supporters and police during the tour.
In his design, Blair has combined the police chant 'move, move, move' with the classic opening text crawl of Star Wars films where the text recedes into the upper background; and he has co-opted the language of movie posters for ironic purposes: 'Coming soon to your district', 'Warning...Contains Violence'.
His imagery is visceral, featuring Red Squad police officers at the top batoning a crowd of protesters, with a spread-eagled injured protester in the foreground. His splash of red ink acts as a visual punch in the middle of the image.