Museum Notebook: Fond memories of Highland dancing

Detail of Cairngorm with amber-coloured cabochon citrine stone. Photo / Supplied

Waverley-born Llorien Hooper (later Hilbourne) started Highland dancing in 1946 when she was nine years old.

Her family doctor suggested Llorien's mother send her to Highland dancing lessons "to expand her chest" and improve her health.

Mrs Hooper bought a complete Highland dancing outfit for her daughter. It consists of a Buchanan clan tartan kilt and sash (plaid), velvet jacket, frilled satin blouse, Buchanan tartan socks, soft kid leather Highland dancing shoes called ghillies and a velvet Balmoral (bonnet).

An animal claw mounted on silver fastens the kilt, a silver clan crest badge with a thistle emblem pins feathers to the bonnet. The cairngorm, a silver brooch with an amber-coloured cabochon citrine stone, holds the Highland sash.

Llorien danced until she was about 13. She learned at the Muriel Swan Studio, upstairs in the Tesla Studios in Victoria Avenue. Llorien remembers dancing at A&P show competitions, in the grandstand at the Wanganui Jockey Club and in end-of-year displays for parents at the Opera House.

When she outgrew her Highland outfit, her mother sent her to organ lessons. She remembers her Highland dancing days with great affection and could never part with her outfit until 60 years later when she donated it to the Whanganui Regional Museum.

The outfit is based on the regalia of a Highland laird (chief). Modern Highland dancing stems from the Victorian interest in Scotland and Scottish traditions, made popular by Queen Victoria. Less than a century before her ascent to the British throne, the Battle of Culloden ended 60 years of Scottish opposition to the British Crown in 1746. Tartans, kilts and Scottish 'war dances' were banned by law, being seen as symbols of dissent.

Victorian men began learning Highland dancing, and towards the end of the 19th century women joined in. The revival of Highland dancing helped the renewal of the tartan weaving industry, much loved by the House of Hanover, the Queen's royal family.

Llorien Hooper's Buchanan tartan Highland dancing outfit. Whanganui Regional Museum Collection ref: 2001.76.1-8

Today about 95 per cent of Highland dancers are female. There has been a long tradition of Highland dancing in New Zealand, especially in places settled largely by descendants of Scottish settlers, like Dunedin and much of Southland, Waipū in Northland and Turakina, 23km south of Whanganui.

Llorien's Highland dancing outfit is currently on exhibition at the museum as January's 'Outfit of the Month'. This was initially timed to coincide with the Turakina Highland Games. Modern celebrations at the games include piping, drumming and band competitions, Highland and national dancing competitions, massed bands and traditional Scottish games such as tossing the caber, the sheaf toss, needle in the haystack and the three-legged race.

Held every January since the establishment of the Turakina Caledonian Society in 1864, Covid-19 restrictions meant the 2022 Games had to be cancelled. We look forward to next year's celebrations.

• Libby Sharpe is senior curator at Whanganui Regional Museum.