Shaky Isles
{{Short description|Nickname for New Zealand}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2024}}
The Shaky Isles or Shaky Islands is a nickname for New Zealand.{{Cite book
| publisher = Ministry for the Environment
| isbn = 978-0-478-09000-0
| last = Taylor
| first = Rowan
|author2=New Zealand
| title = The State of New Zealand's Environment 1997
| location = Wellington, N.Z
| year = 1997
}} At one time this nickname was used in New Zealand itself, though its usage there is now seen as dated; it is still fairly widely used in Australia.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}
The name derived from New Zealand's frequent seismic activity. The islands lie on the margin of two colliding tectonic plates, the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates. Earthquakes are common, particularly in the southwest of the South Island and in the central North Island, and the North Island's scenery is marked by several active and dormant volcanic cones.
The phrase is at worst only very mildly derogatory, and is usually only used humorously with no pejorative connotations.
The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year – but only about 150 are usually felt.{{Cite web |title=New Zealand Earthquakes / Earthquakes / Science Topics / Learning / Home - GNS Science |url=https://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Earthquakes/New-Zealand-Earthquakes#:~:text=Every%20year%20GNS%20Science%20locates,they%20are%20recorded%20by%20seismographs. |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=www.gns.cri.nz}} Schoolchildren in the country regularly undertake earthquake drills.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}
Historical references
Usage of the term “Shaky Isles” in the earlier half of the 20th century indicates a certain sensitivity on the subject among New Zealanders.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}
“New Zealand need not worry about the untruthful nickname ‘Shaky Isles,’ which appears occasionally in Australian papers, when a report of an earthquake is cabled across the Tasman Sea,” the New Zealand Railways Magazine assured its readers in 1929.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-REAAAAIAAJ&q=%22new+zealand+need+not+worry+about+the+untruthful+nickname%22|title=New Zealand Railways Magazine|date=1929|language=en}}
In 1932 (the year after the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in New Zealand’s North Island killed 256 people) New Zealand’s Leader of the Opposition, Australian-born Harry Holland, warned New Zealand’s Parliament of “the serious damage that is being done to New Zealand by the grossly exaggerated and untruthful statements that are published overseas regarding earthquakes, riots, fires, and floods…” {{Cite book|last=Parliament|first=New Zealand|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O4I1NvOGnAkC&q=%22shaky+isles%22|title=Parliamentary Debates. House of Representatives|date=1932|language=en}}
Holland told Parliament: “I visited Australia less than two years ago, and almost invariably when my name appeared in the newspapers I was described as a visitor from the land of shakes. My son was manager of the New Zealand hockey team which toured Australia. They visited Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales, and some of them went as far as South Australia. He brought back with him clippings from a number of newspapers, in which he and his team were described as the hockey team from the Shaky Isles. He says that when people got off the boat at Sydney they were looked upon as being very fortunate to have escaped from New Zealand, because of the continual shakes. I think the time has come when the Government would be well advised to impose a very much stricter censorship over the damaging cable messages that are sent out.”{{Cite book|last=Parliament|first=New Zealand|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O4I1NvOGnAkC&q=%22shaky+isles%22|title=Parliamentary Debates. House of Representatives|date=1932|language=en}}
In popular culture
The term "Shaky Isles" has been used multiple times in New Zealand popular culture as a reference to the country. Among the earliest uses of the term was by the Maori Troubadours in 1960, with their song Shakin' in the Shaky Isles.{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Maori-Troubadours-Shakin-In-The-Shaky-Isle/release/4404950 |title=Maori Troubadours – Shakin' In The Shaky Isle (vinyl) at Discogs |publisher= Discogs |date= 14 August 1960|accessdate=14 March 2017}} This was followed up in later decades by Mike Harding in 1989 and Dave Dobbyn in 1991. A New Zealand theatre company headed by Emma Deakin in London is called "The Shaky Isles Theatre Company".{{cite web|url=http://www.shakyislestheatre.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070831222239/http://www.shakyislestheatre.com/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=31 August 2007 |title=Our work is physical, lyrical, it's story. Of home and where home is now, of New Zealand, of London – of everything in between |publisher=Shaky Isles Theatre |date= |accessdate=5 September 2016}} "Shaky Isles" is also the name of a cafe chain in Auckland.{{cite web |url= http://shakyisles.co.nz/about-us/ |title=About Us |work=Shaky Isles |publisher=Marvel Hospitality |accessdate=3 September 2016}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/34497 New Zealand, the Shaky Isles of volcanoes and earthquakes] at DigitalJournal