Tame tobacco tantalises

Bed sheets dyed green, then hand cut into 700 teeny tobacco leaves. Just one of the materials harvested for an exhibition giving locals a buzz at Lower Moutere’s Tractor World.

In its heyday, Motueka’s tobacco industry was a major player, acre upon acre with packing plants and corrugated iron drying kilns. It employed thousands, including Dennis Williams for 15 years.

He, along with volunteer Jaci Brown, were inspired to roll up their version by the donated tobacco photos and other memorabilia at Tractor World, and a similar display at the Motueka District Museum.

“It shows the progression of the tobacco, from growing to picking to drying to grading… we have it on the wall, but we wanted the people to physically and visually see it as well,” Jaci says.

“It has a proper downdraft kiln with a cold smoker, the hot air goes up, comes through the wall, and back down to dry the tobacco leaves. There is a generation that is completely unaware of the fact that this whole area comes from tobacco, so we wanted to show this is what this area was known for.” Jaci says it exhibits the 1960s to 1980s eras of local industry.

They plan to have the exhibition permanently at Tractor World like tobacco-stained tones, available to view seven days a week between 9am and 8pm.