Market’s ‘real history’ revisited
A quiet demonstration marked the 40-year anniversary of the ‘‘real history’’ of Nelson’s Saturday Market.
The three founders of the 1978 ‘‘Trash n Treasure’’ second-hand market were at the corner of Montgomery Square on Saturday, passing out leaflets and talking to passers-by about what they called ‘‘the real history of the Nelson Market’’.
In 1978 Shirley Goodman, Robin Skinner and Anne Kolless were given permission to run a market for the Women’s Emergency Centre (later to become Women’s Refuge) in Buxton car park.
The market ran every few months, eventually moving into Miller’s Acre.
However, Kolless said by 1980 the original market had been ‘‘muscled out’’ by the Nelson City Council, in favour of the commercial market run to this day by Nita Knight.
‘‘We had them for about two years, and somehow behind the scenes in 1980, somebody else was given permission to run it on a permanent basis.
‘‘The council’s process, too much went on behind closed doors. There was no transparency, no opportunity for anyone else to apply.’’
She said Saturday’s demonstration was about recognition.
‘‘It’s become a private enterprise which has become very successful, and I do not deny the effort that has gone into it.
‘‘We are just celebrating 40 years since we started the market – it’s about letting people know what happened in the beginning, the roadblocks we confronted.’’
Kolless said in future she hoped there would be an opportunity to put a higher percentage of the profits from the market back into charity.
Nelson Women’s and Children’s Refuge Services governance board chairwoman Deborah Van Dam said the organisation was not associated with the event on Saturday.
Nelson Market owner Nita Knight could not be reached for comment over the weekend.
Earlier in November, Knight said there had been nothing untoward about how the market had been set up.
‘‘I had no idea [about the Trash n Treasure market], I came from Auckland and I just loved Nelson, and I wondered what I could do for the place,’’ she said.