Design your own badge for your home team/club/kura

People have been wearing badges for centuries. They’re a very old form of identity making: showing who you are. They’re kind of like wearing a mini billboard. Maybe you have one of your favourite sports team or band or Pokémon?

Design a badge for a team you support or something you’re passionate about and wear it proudly!

Education type

Whānau challenge

Inspiration

Collections Online

Collections Online is a great place to start for ideas for your badges. We have over 1,000 badges by a Petone designer named Trevor Dick, for example. He made them in the 1960s and 1970s and include sports clubs, police departments, marching bands, darts clubs... even birdspotters!

View the Trevor Dick collection of badges

Other collections include brooches by Jacqui Chan(link is external) and brooches by Jane Dodd(link is external).

Browse ‘badges’ on Collections Online

Badge in the shape of an archway featuring an illustration of a blue heron and a red dart with the words “Blue Heron Dart Club”

Blue Heron Dart Club decorative badge, by Trevor Dick, 1946/1979, Petone. Te Papa (GH020704)

Decorative badge featuring a large flaming torch with the word Wanganui on it, and a green lizard standing beside it looking upwards at the flame. Underneath appears the word ‘cosmopolitan’

Wanganui Cosmopolitan Club decorative badge, by Trevor Dick, 1946/1979, Petone. Te Papa (GH021501)

Oval badge with red and gold border with the words Hutt Valley Pony Club Inc. Inside the border is a gold pony with perky ears and the letters N.Z.P.C.A

Hutt Valley Pony Club Inc. decorative badge, by Trevor Dick, 1946/1979, Petone. Te Papa (GH021857)

Upside down pink triangle with a white map of New Zealand and the words ‘We are everywhere’

We Are Everywhere badge, by the National Gay Rights Coalition, about 1979. Gift of Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand, 2017. Te Papa (GH025206)

Black and gold circle-shaped badge featuring depiction of Mt Taranaki with a rugby ball underneath it and a sash with the words ‘Taranaki Primary School Rugby Rep’

Taranaki Primary School Rugby Rep. decorative badge, by Trevor Dick, 1946/1979, Petone. Te Papa (GH010716)

Eye-shaped badge with a black border featuring the words ‘Foxton Beach Bowling Club’. Inside the border is a colourful depiction of a sunset from a beach

Foxton Beach Bowling Club decorative badge, by Trevor Dick, 1946/1979, Petone. Te Papa (GH010754)

Other collections include brooches by Jacqui Chan and brooches by Jane Dodd.

Videos

History curator Stephanie Gibson talks about badges and ‘tiny activism’.

Jeweller Jacqui Chan created the Host a Brooch project together with Caroline Billing of Christchurch gallery The National, in response to the Canterbury earthquakes.

Filmed in his studio, Warwick Freeman talks about how his works address issues of identity.

Ngāti Toa carvers Tana and Hermann Salzmann carve the waharoa (Māori gateway) for the exhibition Whiti Te Ra! The story of Ngāti Toa Rangatira.

Discover the art of tīvaevae (quilting) with Cook Islands women from the Wellington region.

Other resources

Te Papa and Auckland Museum staff submissions!

‘Craft & Kittens Club’ badge, by and courtesy of Jane Grofsky

‘Masks – the must-have accessory of 2020’ badge, by and courtesy of Bev Moon

‘In My Bubble’ badge, by and courtesy of Anonymous

‘Covid-19 Survivors Club’ badge, by and courtesy of Steph Gibson

‘Ban the Rona’ badge, by and courtesy of Michael Rogers

‘All by myself’ badge, by and courtesy of Daniel Crichton-Rouse

Three kids make a rainbow from toys and other household items

Whānau challenges

Try some creative challenges at home with your whānau. Each challenge is connected to Te Papa’s collections or expertise.

A little boy copies an artwork in a Minecraft game

Make a 3D version of an abstract 2D artwork

Early childhood, Primary

Choose an artwork from the collections and try and replicate it in 3D – you can use everyday objects and materials at home, or make it on the computer.

Whānau challenge

Boy holds sheet of paper. On the paper he has drawn a lollipop, and egg, and an orange to represent the letters of his name

Take a self-portrait with objects that spell out your name

Early childhood, Primary

You may know self-portraits by another name: selfies. They allow us to think about questions such as: Who am I? They’re also fun to make!

Whānau challenge