Return to sender
They graced the walls of millions of teenagers’ bedrooms in the 1960s, but posters of popstars including Elvis Presley and the Beatles are no longer acceptable to all in 2020.
Last year, New Plymouth woman Katey Pittwood discovered a treasure trove of 1960s pop posters pasted from the floor to the ceiling in a home she was renovating.
The posters featured global superstars Elvis Presley, the Kinks, the Who and the Beatles as well as such well-known acts as the Yardbirds, the Merseybeats and the Swinging Blue Jeans.
After putting the find on social media, she was inundated with offers from people wanting to give them a new home. Eventually, Pittwood donated the posters to the Parachute Music recording studios in Auckland.
However, 12 months after taking on the massive collection, Parachute Music sent the posters back.
‘‘In light of recent events around the world, we realised they didn’t give a broad enough representation of gender or race to be featured in our context,’’ Mark de Jong, the founder and chief executive of Parachute Music, wrote in an email.
The posters are dominated by white men, with only a few women represented.
Parachute Music’s decision related to the global reaction to the death of
George Floyd in the United States in May and the protests that have taken place worldwide against racial injustice.
It’s an issue that has also resonated in New Zealand, including a call from Ma¯ori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer for the Government to work with iwi and hapu¯ to identify inappropriate colonial statues and monuments across New Zealand.
In some cases, action has already been taken. Last month, following a request from iwi, a statue of Captain Hamilton was removed from Civic Square in Hamilton, Waikato.
Despite the decision, de Jong said he was ‘‘thrilled’’ the posters were able to be returned to Pittwood and were back in their ‘‘original home’’.
Pittwood supported Parachute Music’s position but said she believed the popstar poster collection was a reflection of the times.
The collection now had sentimental value for the mother-oftwo, who said it was the only time she had discovered anything unique during the five house renovations she had done over the years.
Pittwood said the recording studio had couriered the poster walls back to her for free, and the posters have since been installed on the walls of different rooms in her home.
The Coastal Taranaki teacher said she had no regrets about giving the collection away in the first place, but felt incredibly lucky to have it back.
She said it was not something she thought would ever happen.
‘‘They [the posters] have come back to where they started, which I think is really cool.’’