No Trevs as Te Papa honours iconic Dagg
The iconic hat, singlet, shorts and gumboots of Fred Dagg are on display at New Zealand’s national museum as a tribute to the late John Clarke.
The items, dated from the early 1970s, include a black Mosgiel Woollen Factory Company singlet, Canterbury of New Zealand shorts, mismatched Skellerup Industries gumboots and a floppy hat.
Clarke, who died in April, was renowned for creating Taihape farmer Dagg and gifted his outfit to Te Papa in 2002.
That year, Te Papa curator contemporary life and culture Stephanie Gibson travelled to Melbourne, where Clarke had lived since 1977, to pick up the outfit from him.
He took her to one of his favourite cafes in Fitzroy, where he told her funny stories for three hours, she said.
Clarke had just been mowing the lawns in Dagg’s gumboots – so getting them ready for customs was no easy task.
Gibson said they were covered in grass and mud, so she had to wash and blow-dry them in her hotel room before the customs agent arrived.
Dagg was deeply embedded into New Zealand’s popular culture and Kiwis held him in high regard, she said.
‘‘He is the loveliest, most amazing, most generous person I’ve ever met.
‘‘It would be criminal not to honour him as a great New Zealander in the year of his passing.’’
Dagg had just the one iconic outfit, most of it was recycled, and Clarke had carefully looked after it for all those years.
His sister had given him the hat, the gumboots were a mismatched pair he ‘‘found somewhere’’, and the shorts were pants ripped at the knees from the wardrobe of his employer, the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.
He had three black singlets, inspired by sheep shearers: one woollen, and two cotton that he wore in summer.
Clarke’s funeral was held in Melbourne, so the museum felt it necessary to display Dagg’s outfit as a physical tribute.
The only other time it has been displayed was for an exhibition on the 1970s in 2005.
Gibson said that through the outfit ‘‘we are able to celebrate what he means to Kiwis. This is a way for New Zealanders to come and share their memories in a public space. It’s very personal and very human.’’
* The Fred Dagg hotspot will be on display on Level 2 outside Soundings Theatre till October 23. Free entry.