Green and Gold Ashburton

Why is Mid-Canterbury represented by green and gold?

What symbols and pictures represent our area?

We our trying to find out why Mid-Canterbury sports teams wear green and gold. In our group we have two year sixes and two year fives. Alex, Nick, Kieran and Liam were the group.

The first piece of information we found was about the Ashburton Coat of Arms in a newspaper that celebrates Ashburton's 150th birthday.

The Ashburton Coat of Arms was first designed in 1966. Ashburton was first named after the first Lord Ashburton who worked for the Canterbury Land Settlement Scheme. The Coat of Arms represents Lord Ashburton and the Turton family who were the first European settlers in Ashburton.

The blue wavy band stands for the Ashburton River and the Maori canoe represents the myth that the Southern Alps is a canoe resting on its side.

The ram's head and the grain stands for our farming background which brings a lot of money into our town.

The birds are pied stilts which are wading birds that live on our braided rivers in Mid- Canterbury.

When translated, the motto closely means 'Faith confirms what has been proved good and true.'
PAST PRESENT FUTURE

Mid-Canterbury colours used to be black and white.

We think these colours came from the black and white pied stilts on the coat of arms.

In 2008, Mid-Canterbury colours are green and gold.

This is because of our farming background.

The green represents the plains - the grass.

The gold represents the barley and wheat grown on the plains.

Nick and Alex think that in the future Mid- Canterbury's colours could possibly be blue and gold.

The blue would represent water - there are a few lakes in our area. Water is also very important to the farmers in our area.

The gold would still represent cropping. We don't think there will be any green paddocks left in our area.

Kieran and Liam think that in the future, Mid- Canterbury's colours could possibly be blue, black and white.

The blue would represent water - the same as above.

The black would represent NZ and the birds on the coat of arms.

White could represent the mountains and NZ.
   

This is our design for a new Mid-Canterbury sports uniform in the future. See above for an explanation of the colours.

By Nick and Alex

This is our design for a new Mid-Canterbury sports uniform in the future. See above for an explanation of the colours.

By Kieran and Liam S