Georgia Prince has curated the show. Picture / Jason Oxenham
Georgia Prince has curated the show. Picture / Jason Oxenham
Kiwis have a proud tradition of heading off on the Big OE, and an exhibition showing in Auckland details how it's been a rite of passage since the start of the 1900s, writes Natalie Akoorie.
An exhibition about the Kiwi overseas experience shows New Zealanders have been exploring the world since the early 1900s, well before the term "the Big OE" was coined in the 1970s.
The exhibition, which opens on Friday in Auckland, features photographs, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, souvenirs and collected memorabilia from Kiwis who have lived overseas.
Though the tradition became, from the 1950s, something of a rite of passage among young New Zealanders wanting to see the world, exhibition curator Georgia Prince said many intrepid travellers headed off on their OE as far back as the turn of the 20th century.
"The Big OE is quite a modern term. Although the 1970s is a time when we saw many more New Zealanders travelling, it isn't as if they haven't done it before."
Among the donated material for the exhibition are letters from 1902, a pre-World War I photograph album, and a diary from 1930.
"What we're trying to do is let people see that the idea of the Big OE has been around for a lot longer than its name has."
Many people went on their OE after World War II, Ms Prince said, staying away for several years because passage on a boat was not cheap.
"Before the war it was still an expensive undertaking so people couldn't just go off for two weeks and then come back again. They were really committed to going off for a while."
It wasn't until the 1970s, when air travel became more available and affordable, that the popularity of the Big OE really took off, she said.
"These were the prosperous post-war years and prices of travel were going down."
One of the features of the exhibition includes 150 photographs from Ron Clark, a talented amateur photographer who captured 1970s Britain and Europe during several OEs with wife Muriel.
Mr Clark has since died and Mrs Clark, 90, donated the photographs to the library, which only make up a fraction of the photos the couple amassed during their time together.
Ms Prince said the photographs, turned into slides, were a highlight of the exhibition.
"He was a very good photographer. It wasn't his job but he was obviously really interested in it. He took so many and documented their whole family life.
"He's got interesting subjects and he's got a good eye. And they're all in colour and they've lasted really well."
Other items on show include labels, tickets, postcards and even a couple of passports.
One belonging to Ilene Stichbury, which labels her as a British subject, shows she left for Europe in the 1930s, visiting Croatia, Italy, France and Austria during her time away.
Ms Prince said the exhibition, thought up by the Sir George Grey Special Collections team of the Auckland Central City Library, would be visually fascinating, fun and lively.
"I should think for a lot of people it will just trigger memories of their own trips. It will be quite nostalgic for a lot of people."
For others, she said, it might be a shock for them to realise they are not the only generation who have embarked on an OE.
"They might be surprised that people in the early 20s were so adventurous because modern travellers often think they're the only ones who are doing all these adventurous things, but strangely enough their parents and grandparents have done it before them."
Showing leg at the palace
Ninety-year-old Muriel Clark. Photo / Chris Gorman
When Muriel Clark met the Queen at a Buckingham Palace garden party, she was wearing a mini skirt.
It was 1973 and the little skirt was the height of fashion.
Mrs Clark was 49, and on her "big OE" with husband Ron.
The pair were raised in Britain but after getting married in London, they emigrated to New Zealand in 1946.
It was almost 30 years before they returned to live and work in London so they could travel around the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea.
Mr Clark, an amateur photographer who documented much of their travels, had been a master mariner and Mrs Clark trained in foreign languages and together their thirst for culture, arts and people led them across Europe and Britain.
Now 90 and in a retirement home in Auckland, Mrs Clark has donated many of her late husband's photos to The Big OE exhibition because she believes he would want others to get enjoyment from them.
The couple raised their family in Auckland before embarking on their not-so-typical four OEs over several years in the 1970s.
But as with modern day OEs they hired a car and drove around Europe to countries such as Greece, Italy, Scotland, Ireland and all over England, camping as they went.
While working in London and staying with relatives the couple secured an invitation from New Zealand House to attend the Royal garden party at Buckingham Palace.
They waited for a letter indicating the dress code and, when it finally came on the day of the party, it stated attendees were required to wear a uniform - if they had one - while "colonials" were asked to wear "afternoon dress".
"I had a mini skirt on because they had just come in.
"We had strawberries and cream and the Queen came round and Princess Anne did too."
Despite London "buzzing" with a much bigger population, Mrs Clark said she missed New Zealand and its open spaces.
"New Zealanders were more outward going. The British people were more reticent. In New Zealand you could go for a couple of miles and see not more than a blade of grass. You can't do that in Britain."
Gina Dellabarca's unconventional overseas experience began as a move to Australia with her then boyfriend, who had a new job in Sydney.
It was 2002 and she was just 22 and spent the first couple of months reading books in the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour in between job hunting.
Soon after the relationship broke up, Ms Dellabarca moved into a large house in Redfern with a group of Irish immigrants, and forged lifelong friendships.
While she looked for work in marketing in the film and television industry, Ms Dellabarca broadened her employment experience doing temp work for interesting businesses including an architecture firm, a dental surgery and in the public service processing applications for the migration review tribunal.
She called the city beautiful and said there was always something to do.
Living in another country taught her to become resilient and self-sufficient, and gave Ms Dellabarca an appreciation for being part of a community.
"When you're away you lose all your connections and you feel a bit lost. I've joined a lot of clubs and organisations and I think it's made me the kind of person who takes part in things and does volunteering and wants to give back to my community."
Originally from Waihi, Ms Dellabarca returned to New Zealand to take up a dream job in Auckland, where the 36-year-old is still based.
"I was just starting to love Sydney and really find my place there. I learned it takes about a year to properly establish somewhere and build networks."
Ms Dellabarca had fond memories of Sydney and recommends an OE to all Kiwis.
However, she suggested taking a different approach.
"I am a bit anti people doing the traditional let's-all-move-to-London-and-spend-our-time-going-around-getting-drunk-in-different-European-cities.
"After all the travel I've done since then, I recommend people go somewhere off the beaten path and do something a bit different. Otherwise I think that people end up with all the same stories if they do the same thing as everyone else."
On show
What:The Big OE, a free exhibition featuring the experiences of New Zealanders on the traditional Kiwi overseas experience.
When: March 6 - June 14.
Where: Sir George Grey Special Collections, Level 2, Central City Library, Auckland.
