By Thomas Arnold, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Wellington Museum and Heritage Studies Post Graduate (2025)
Most items we associate with protests are as subtle as a megaphone. Banners, badges, and placards openly display their creators' demands in slogans and popular symbols. However, some items demonstrate a more understated side of protest.
From full body suits and hard hats that symbolise a movement’s message to satirical and subversive menus and wreaths, these items reveal the diversity of ways people have made their voices heard.
Police confiscated items, such as food parcels from the so called ‘Terror Raids’ in Rūātoki and artistic inspired soundsuits that create a race obscuring second-skin symbolise and memorialise ongoing movements.
While other items reveal unexpected stories of the people involved in protests, such as a playgroup advertisement made in the midst of the 2022 anti-vaccination parliamentary occupation.
The following kete presents eight items which subvert our expectations of what a protest item is.