Permanent home wanted for treasures as 100-year netball exhibition opens

A tracksuit that belonged to Dame Lois Muir in the 1980s and a minute book from 1924 are two of the most prized possessions at a new museum exhibition dedicated to netball in New Zealand.

And given it's been the number one sport for women and girls in this country for more than a century, it's hoped that a permanent home might be found to house netball's treasures.

Earlier this year Netball New Zealand (NNZ) became the first national netball body in the world to reach 100 years of existence. The Auckland War Memorial Museum partnered with NNZ for an exhibition that examines the game's first 100 years in Aotearoa, which officially opens Tuesday afternoon.

Our Game: A Century of Netball in Aotearoa New Zealand explores the origins of netball here, and how dedicated volunteers built it to become one of the most popular sports in the country.

It also highlights the challenges the sport, its supporters, and players faced, from earning recognition as a national sport to acceptance into the Commonwealth Games.

Auckland Museum curator Jane Groufsky said the museum held a netball exhibition 20 year's ago.

"And out of that Netball New Zealand gifted us some of their archive, so there are a couple objects from that collection, which are now part of the Auckland Museum collection, which we will see again in this exhibition. For example we have the coaching tracksuit that belonged to Dame Lois Muir so lots of people will be familiar with her as an icon of the sport and that tracksuit is coming out again," Groufsky said.

The bulk of the exhibition and objects on display are loaned from Netball New Zealand's archives, which they have acquired over the years.

"Including things that former players and administrators have gifted to them. They also have a huge archive of audio-visual material and images so the exhibition includes some of that material like interviews with previous players, historic footage of older games, photos of past teams, and even training footage of Silver Ferns."

Groufsky worked closely with netball historian Todd Miller and the University of Auckland's Dr Margaret Henley, who has researched the history of the sport in New Zealand.

"We are using Te Taunga community hub for the exhibition - the gallery where we work closely with communities for them to be able to put on a story in the way that they want to. This is the first time that we're working with the sports community in the form of Netball New Zealand. But Todd and Margaret have been a huge part of the process, they are the subject matter experts and have got incredible knowledge of the history of netball in New Zealand."

Having spent hours pouring over archive material the thing that struck Groufsky most was how much netball had been a labour of love.

"And the volunteer community behind it from the very start just pushed and pushed to make it into the massive sport that it is today and I've come to realise that that's no accident. People at every stage pushed it to become that, from things like people calling the local media to report the scores from local games so that they would get it into the local newspapers."

Visitors to the exhibition will see how uniform fashions have changed drastically over the years. Five mannequins will display garments, including a tracksuit from the 1980s that Dame Lois Muir used to wear when she was coaching.

"Also on display will be Dame Lois Muir's scrapbook that she made in 1963 when they travelled by ship to the first ever Netball World tournament in England and so that relates to her time as a player. So we've got those two aspects of her story, her as a player, then her as a coach."

Todd Miller said there was a meeting about two and a half years ago to discuss the idea of a centenary year exhibition. He said Henley had been a driving force, with her historical knowledge and all the research she had done in the background over the years.

"The experts at the museum like Jane and Nick Yeats (interpretative planner) have been incredible in terms of bringing it to life, could not have had more passionate professionals in their area to help us tell our story," Miller said.

Netball New Zealand had already accumulated a lot of material, including building an audio archive and collecting physical artefacts.

"Some of the collections are from netball centres and donations from families and past players and officials from within the netball community. Over the last 10 to 15 years we've managed to build that up as part of our Netball New Zealand archive that tell the rich history of our sport."

Miller said the digital archive went back to cinema news reels and archival footage, and people's home movies, which include Dame Lois' 8mm film footage from the 1963 World tournament.

"Dame Lois played in every match in 1963 but someone who wasn't on the court used her 8-mill colour camera and that footage is part of our archives, which has got vision of pretty much all of the New Zealand games from the first world tournament."

Miller said deciding what to include in the exhibition was challenging.

"But a lot of it was driven by how the sport got a foothold in New Zealand and in the very early days it was the administrators so people like Irene McInnes, the first president of Netball New Zealand and Murtle Muir (who later became the first coach of New Zealand), and treasurer Betty Armstrong were the three driving forces around the formation of Netball New Zealand in 1924."

Visitors will also see the original minutes from 1924, which have been loaned from the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

In Miller's eyes the minute book is one of most special treasures in the exhibition.

"The fact that it has been preserved from 100 years ago and it's in the handwriting of the secretary Dorothy Crumpton, is still available for people to publicly view today. And the history of everything that happened from those initial years and for us to be able to refer to it and uncover things about its past that maybe have been forgotten."

Miller said another amazing feature was a 1975 World tournament dress donated by former Silver Fern player and coach Yvonne Willering.

"The poppy dress was their formal dress and it was the first time they moved away from a skirt and blazer and you'll see from the display that the poppy dress is a very prominent feature and as Yvonne says in her own words seeing a team of 10 or 12 people and all the officials in that dress was a sight to behold back in the day."

Miller said it would be amazing to have a permanent museum for netball in New Zealand.

"That would be the dream and I think to showcase the women that have come before and all the hard work and grind that's gone in to make the sport what it is today and for people to be able to see those humble beginnings."

The New Zealand Rugby Museum in Palmerston North has been operating for over 50 years. The New Zealand Cricket Museum at Wellington's Basin Reserve was established 37 year's ago.

"I think one of the challenges for the sport is that there's not that many physical locations - netball has always struggled for space. Most of the facilities you'll see around the country that are netball specific are quite lean in terms of the size and the footprint, given the resources that netball has. It would be amazing but it would need to be a partnership, like rugby and cricket have with third parties to bring it to life I suspect."

Netball New Zealand chief executive Jennie Wyllie said it was incredible how the netball community had preserved heirlooms and generously donated them over the years.

"It seems so criminal that they are not on display to the public and that's why we are delighted that over the next six months the public have an opportunity to interact with it," Wyllie said.

"This should be a permanent thing absolutely, the legacy of women's sport in New Zealand deserves a place and I guess the question is how does that look in this new digital era. But we'd love for it to have a permanent home somewhere around the country for everyone to enjoy."

The exhibition runs until 18 February 2025.