Museum hosts past and future Banana Festival Queens
20 July 2016
New display launched as Queen contenders begin campaigns
Entrants in this year’s Banana Festival Queen competition are tipping their tiaras to the event’s past, as the 2016 contenders prepare to begin their campaigns.
As part of their orientation program, the entrants paid a visit last Sunday to Tweed Regional Museum Murwillumbah, which is hosting a new Banana Festival display.
This Saturday at 11am, the Murwillumbah Museum will also host a talk featuring the story of past Banana Festival Queen, chaperone and Tweed Citizen of the Year, Clair Woodham (nee Richards).
Clair will reflect on her experience as a Banana Festival Queen and Chaperone. She was Miss Stokers Siding in 1973 and went on to be crowned the Banana Festival Queen in 1976. During that time, Clair was completing her nursing training and went on to a successful nursing career, while raising twin boys and taking on many volunteer roles which contributed to her being named Tweed Citizen of the Year in 1991.
Mayor of Tweed, Councillor Katie Milne, gave credit to the Banana Festival and all the Banana Festival Queens over the years for their great contributions to the community.
Tweed Regional Museum Director Judy Kean said Clair’s presentation and the new display followed a major exhibition at the Museum in 2015, which celebrated 60 years of the Festival and unearthed many interesting stories.
“The 60th anniversary exhibition was all about trying to capture and document as many examples of Festival memorabilia and the history of the Festival as we could,” Ms Kean said.
“We were also delighted to host many of the past Festival Queens at an event at the Museum.
“In talking to many of the past Queens about their experience, we were struck by how consistently important entry in the competition had been for entrants - no matter whether their experience was during the 1950s or the 1980s.
“The experience was a formative one, not only at the time, but also in developing confidence and a sense of what many of these young women felt they could go on to achieve. In many cases their experience also fostered a strong commitment to remaining active contributors to the community,” she said.
This year’s Banana Festival will feature events from 19 August until 27 August, while the Museum display will continue until the end of October.
Clair Woodham’s talk at the Museum: Saturday 23 July 11am, FREE
Tweed Regional Museum, 2 Queensland Road Murwillumbah, open 10am - 4pm
Contact the Museum office (02) 6670 2493 for details or visit museum.tweed.nsw.gov.au
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Caption: This year's Banana Festival Queen competition entrants visited Tweed Regional Museum Murwillumbah last Sunday, before this weekend's presentation and display launch. Photo by Paul Hart.