Swizzle stick

This swizzle stick is in the shape of a waka paddle (hoe), and shows the use of teal as one of Air New Zealand’s signature colours.

Air New Zealand entered the jet age in 1965 (the same year as its name changed from TEAL). The introduction of wide-bodied jets in 1970 opened up international travel, both to and from New Zealand. From the early 1970s, tourism and air travel were booming, and Air New Zealand took great pride in showcasing New Zealand design, wine and food.

At the same time, Māori art and design were becoming more visible in the tourism industry as a whole, with Air New Zealand adopting the koru as its key symbol in 1973.

This swizzle stick is a typical example of how aspects of Maori culture were used in the material and visual culture of flight and tourism as being attractive and appealing to the global traveller. It was also attractive to New Zealander Fred Rothschild who souvenired it when travelling to USA and Europe for business in the mid 1960s.

Such material is part of a continuum of wider debate around the historical appropriation, distortion and/or diminishment of Maori culture in consumer products made for TEAL and Air New Zealand, and in the wider tourist industry.