A close shave...or a cut throat poster

This poster features a cartoon by Trace Hodgson which was redrawn and printed by artist David Blair.

It shows Ces Blazey as a barber. He was the chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union from 1977-1986. When Blazey invited the South African Springbok rugby team to tour New Zealand in 1981, it resulted in huge protests and civil unrest. It also brought on the threat of New Zealand’s exclusion from the Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1982.

Twelve months out from the Games, a boycott was being rumoured by African, Caribbean and Asian countries due to a South African rugby tour of New Zealand. The Moscow 1980 Olympics Games had been affected by boycotts, so the threat for Brisbane was real. A crisis meeting in May 1982 in London resolved that there would be no boycott.

'AAA' in the bottom right corner represents either 'Artists Against Apartheid' or 'Auckland Artists Action'. Artists Against Apartheid was established in August 1981 when a group of artists came together to protest creatively against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in 1981. It morphed into Auckland Artists Action afterwards to have a wider focus.