NZ's Scottish heritage
When you think of music and Scotland, do bagpipes spring to mind!? Those who can trace their family ancestry back to Scotland can visualize parades of pipe bands; Highland dancing; Scottish country dancing; singers of Scottish ballads; the lone piper at weddings, funerals and commemorative events; plus the wearing of tartans at other Scottish-themed events.
Lithographic depiction of 19th C. Scottish Highlander family's emigration to NZ by William Allsworth, c.1855
The emigrants
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Aspects of our Scottish heritage are explored in the DigitalNZ story "Scots immigrants in New Zealand'
Scots immigrants in New Zealand
DigitalNZ
Celebratory events include Highland pipers on the back of a lorry during Auckland Harbour Bridge opening ceremony, 1959
Auckland Harbour Bridge opening celebrations, 1959
Auckland Libraries
Highland dancers
Christchurch City Libraries
SCOTS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Scottish musicians have used a varied range of traditional instruments, as listed on the website Hello Music Theory: 11 traditional Scottish musical instruments you should know
Bagpipes
Toitū Otago Settlers Museum
Bagpipes
MOTAT
Clàrsach or Celtic Harp, a wooden harp with a curved top and side
Scots Wha Hae event, Henderson.
Auckland Libraries
Large bass drum of the Raglan Caledonian Highland Pipe Band, 1947
Caledonian Pipe Band Bass Drum
Raglan and District Museum
BeckerFraserPhotos September 2011 photograph 154
UC QuakeStudies
Harps and fiddles (which have a flat-arch bridge)
The Dunedin Scottish Fiddle Orchestra
Dunedin Public Libraries
Tin whistle which has six holes that players cover in different combinations to produce varying pitches
Tin Whistle
MOTAT
Pipe bands
Playing bagpipes, c. 1910s
Walter Sutherland playing bagpipes in a photographic studio
Wairarapa Archive
Howick Pipe Band, 1982
The Howick Pipe Band marching along Picton Street, Howick.
Howick Historical Village
Malcolm Sutherland playing the bagpipes at Featherston on ANZAC Day
Wairarapa Archive
Judith Rouse, bagpiper
South Canterbury Museum
Bagpipe player Wendy Chisholm
Radio New Zealand
Doctor and champion piper Brendon Eade
Radio New Zealand
Music for Scottish dancing
Records, gramophone
Canterbury Museum
Scottish reels and dances were often performed at balls and dances and taught in schools
Scottish dancing
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Highland Dancing
Hawke's Bay Knowledge Bank
Scottish Dancing 001
Upper Hutt City Library
Scottish Country Dancers
Kete Horowhenua
Highland dancing
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
MCKECHNIE IN THE SWORD DANCE
Auckland Libraries
Highland Gathering, 2002, Harcourt Park; unidentified sword dancer.
Upper Hutt City Library
Tape ("Scottish Songs for Kiwis")
Puke Ariki
Best Song Ever Written - The Flower of Scotland
Radio New Zealand
Best Song Ever Written - Loch Lomond
Radio New Zealand
Soundtracks From The NZIFF - From Scotland With Love
Radio New Zealand
Highland dancing has two national organizations: The New Zealand Academy of Highland & National Dancing (Inc) was formed in 1946 "to maintain the dances brought by settlers. In the 2000s it had a network of teachers across the country and had developed a programme for pre-schoolers. ScotDance NZ was formed in 1999, after New Zealand participants returned from a large Highland-dance conference in Las Vegas excited by new developments in the style."
Source: Megan Cook, 'Cultural dance - Dance in the 2000s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/document/44729/highland-dance
Highland dance
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Festive & commemorative occasions since 1880s
A range of celebratory and commemorative events have been held in New Zealand over the years. You can especially wear your tartans on 1 July which is the date International Tartan Day is celebrated in New Zealand and Australia. That date is the anniversary of the Act of Proscription repeal in 1747 that banned tartan wearing. Typically, Tartan Days have Highland dancing, parades of pipe bands plus other Scottish-themed events.
Shearers on Otakapo Station in Rangitīkei enjoy some Highland dancing to the sounds of a harp, vlolin & bagpipes, 1885
The dance of the shearers
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Wellington’s Caledonian Society held its first annual ball in 1887
Scottish ball
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Scottish singer Miss Jessie Maclachlan toured NZ in 1909
Miss Jessie Maclachlan, the Scottish singer now touring New Zealand
Auckland Libraries
From 1912-1933, The Scotsman magazine kept NZders of Scottish descent informed oft the activities of Scottish societies
The New Zealand Scotsman magazine
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Cameron family, c.1920s. (Father founded NZ’s first civilian pipe band in Invercargill, 25 years earlier in 1896.)
The Cameron family of Mataura
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Highland dancing in Courtenay Place, Wellington, 1939
Kvcning Po.st" X'lioto. Highland dancing in Courtcnay Place, yesterday, one of the activities in connection with a "street day" collection in aid o...
National Library of New Zealand
Highland Games at Hastings, 1960
Veteran piper and dancer, Mr Robert Mosgiel Burns, who is attending the Highland Games at Hastings for the ninth time, plays for his grandchildren
MTG Hawke's Bay
Scottish Country Dancing Party at Tauranga, 1961
Scottish Country Dancing Party
Tauranga City Libraries
Tauranga Scottish Dancing Club performing at the Highland Games, 1969
Variety at the Highland Games: Tauranga Scottish Dancing Club
Tauranga City Libraries
Scottish baritone opera singer, Niven Miller, in Begg's shop window display advertising recordings and concerts, 1969?
Begg's shop window display advertising recordings and concerts by Scottish singer Niven Miller
Alexander Turnbull Library
![Image: Photograph [Mataura Kilties Pipe Band ceilidh, 1984]](https://thumbnailer.digitalnz.org/?resize=770x&src=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ehive.com%2Faccounts%2F4033%2Fobjects%2Fimages%2F14sfei4_229t_l.jpg&resize=368%253E "Photograph [Mataura Kilties Pipe Band ceilidh, 1984]")
Mataura Kilties Pipe Band playing during a ceilidh (Gaelic social gathering)., 1984
Photograph [Mataura Kilties Pipe Band ceilidh, 1984]
Mataura Museum
Farmers Santa Parade along Queen St, Auckland in 1989
Farmers Santa Parade, Queen Street, 1989
Auckland Libraries
Two 5-year olds in the mass Highland fling during the Charity Tattoo at Napier’s McLean Park, 1993
Abby Mitchell and Monica McAulay
MTG Hawke's Bay
International Tartan Day is celebrated at Waipū on 1 July, 2009
Waipu goes Scottish on tartan day
Radio New Zealand
Grand Parade at the Waipū Highland Games, 2012
Grand Parade at the Waipū Highland Games, 2012
Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Around 200 artists from NZ attend Edinburgh festivals, 2014
New Zealand Converges on Edinburgh
Radio New Zealand
Scots Wha Hae event held at Waitākere Central Library, Henderson, 2016
Scots Wha Hae event, Henderson.
Auckland Libraries
Scots Wha Hae event, Henderson.
Auckland Libraries
Piper playing at an RSA commemorative service
Mick Carlton (RSA) and piper John Campbell
South Canterbury Museum
Feilding & District Pipe Band performing in the Anzac parade, 2009
Anzac Day, Halcombe, c. 2019
Feilding Library
Piper's lament played during Christchurch Earthquake Memorial Service. 18 March 2011
Photograph by Neil Macbeth 697
UC QuakeStudies
Competitions
Two champion Highland dancers accompanied by their Dad on the bagpipes, 1892
Mr Smith and sons
Auckland Libraries
Highland Fling competition at the Caledonian Sports at Napier, 1905
Mr W Robertson, winner of the Highland Fling
Auckland Libraries
Nelson Provincial Scottish Society Cup for Highland dancing, 1935
VA.'-R.-Klngsford, Photo: GRACEFUL DANCING.—'Miss '=G. ;Inkster, winner of the Nelson Provincial Scottish. Society Cup!- for Highland dancing, held...
National Library of New Zealand
Members of the Scottish Society Pipe Band at the Christchurch Pipe Band Contest, 1938
Christchurch Pipe Band Contest
Christchurch City Libraries
10 to 12 year-old highland fling section of a highland dancing competition at the Lower Hutt Little Theatre, 1983
Scene during the 10 to 12 year-old highland fling section of a highland dancing competition, Lower Hutt Little Theatre, Wellington region
Alexander Turnbull Library
Highland reel competition at the Highland Games held at Lindisfarne College, Hastings,, 1993
Daniel Ruttler
MTG Hawke's Bay
Under 8 years at Hawke’s Bay Piping and Dancing competitions held at the Marine Parade Sound Shell, Napier, 1993
Abby Mitchell
MTG Hawke's Bay
And the winner is:
Frethey, Highland dancer
Puke Ariki
Tracey Watson with Highland dancing trophies. [P3-307-1382]
Upper Hutt City Library
