THE REAL NEW-ZEALAND - RURAL MYTHOLOGIES PERPETUATED AND COMMODIFIED

Rural mythologies have long been an important component in expressions of national identity in New Zealand. As a pastoral nation carved from the bush in the nineteenth century, rural dwellers have long claimed their place as 'backbone of the country'. Rural mythology transmission in New Zealand has taken place historically, through many processes. Fictions about the 'great way of life' in the country, involving parti cular rural values, activities and artifacts, have become dominant ima gery in visual culture about national and local identity. Images that sentimentalize country life abound in media advertising, on postage st amps, in small-town promotion projects leg town murals, roadside objec ts, festivals), and in contemporary popular and vernacular culture. Th is article addresses the ways in which versions of the real New Zealan d' draw from romantic, nostalgic and invented versions of the past, an d of rural way of life.