Otago Sculpture Trust

In Site Library - Greater Dunedin: The Celtic Cross (Queens Gardens) (2001)

InSite

Celtic Cross............... Queen's Gardens.

In sixth century Scotland the transition from paganism to Christianity was marked by a series of fascinating standing stones which bore, on one side, Pictish runes and, on the other,  the hybrid form we have come to know as the Celtic Cross, a design that was probably brought from Ireland. The six metre high cross which was unveiled in Queen's Gardens in April 2001 derives from these early beginnings. On the base an inscription reveals that the Cross was given to the City by the Christian Churches of Dunedin to commemorate the birth of the Christian faith 2000 years previously. On the opposite face, the same message is repeated in Maori, making this also a monument to the ideals of bi-culturalism.

The Celtic Cross was produced by the local monumental masons Bingham and Company. It was originally proposed by the Otago Peninsula Ministers Association and accepted as a millennium project by the Christian Millennium Committee. All known Christian churches in Dunedin were invited to join in with the project. Originally it was intended that the cross would be unveiled at Easter 2000 but this plan was thwarted by the resource consent process and it was to be a further twelve months before it was officially received by the City.

The first Christian settlers and their journey to New Zealand are celebrated in the relief designs around the base. A three-masted ship commemorates the voyages of migration and each of the British kingdoms is symbolised by their national plant: a rose for England, a daffodil for Wales, a shamrock for Ireland, and, of course, a thistle for Scotland. On the north side of the base, a settler is met by a Kai Tahu man in a cloak who stands by a cabbage tree and offers the new arrival, by way of welcome, a fish. The design is based on an early sketch and was prepared for the monument by the artist Stephen Mulqueen.

The fish motif is repeated on the shaft of the cross and commemorates the gifts of Maori to people who came in ships. The fish is also an ancient Christian symbol. The twelve human figures on the cross symbolise the twelve apostles, the first Christians, while the circle is a symbol of eternal life and the spiral pattern signifies the resurrection. The modern technique of sandblasting was used to incise these designs.

Even before it was unveiled, the cross came in for spirited criticism. Some objections were lodged concerning the proposed site but both the Otago Settler's Museum and the Historic Places Trust were in favour of the monument which they felt would add prestige to the historic precinct of Queen's Gardens. One correspondent to the Otago Daily Times wondered why there was no Gaelic inscription while another claimed it was a memorial to the Celtic nostalgia cult of those who erected it. Some opponents had worried that the Christian symbol so prominently displayed might offend those of other faiths but the Gaelic language ginger group, Clan Albainn, in an ambiguous defence of the monument, claimed that the ringed cross may predate even Christianity and should therefore offend no one.

Richard Dingwall InSite

Text Copyright Richard Dingwall