Obituary: Pumicelands pioneer Norma Evans

Rotorua's Norma Evans in 2012.

One of the last of the post-World War II Pumicelands pioneers has died in Rotorua at the age of 90.

She was Norma Mae Evans, born in 1927 in Invercargill and brought up in Kurow, Central Otago in a family steeped in the "making-do" tradition. Her mother and grandmother were dressmakers; her father a craftsman saddler. In 1942, when she was just 18, she set up her own dressmaking business in Kurow.

Her skills stood her in good stead when she married returned serviceman Bob Evans in 1946, and the young couple went farming in the Hakataramea Valley, South Canterbury.

Then, after a decade of marriage the couple and their four daughters migrated north to take up a farm block on the raw pumicelands of Rotomahana. This was part of a nationwide reintegration scheme that saw almost 14,000 ex-World War II servicemen settled on land readied for them by the Government.

Like all the other families involved in this huge undertaking, they arrived to few facilities. Many settlers, the Evans' included, were allocated a "Part-House", literally half a house sitting in a paddock.

The bonding of these diverse people from all over the country is part of legend now: they supported each other through good times and bad. Huge energy went into creating community facilities like halls. These halls became the scene of many activities - including the fondly recalled dances "down the hall on a Saturday night".

In 1993 Rotorua Museum presented a Suffrage Centennial Year exhibition called Daughters of the Land. Mrs Evans' story was among those featured, and over the next two decades a number of exhibitions such as Country Couture and Winter Woollies featured her carefully collected items.

Her awareness of the importance of her family's story makes Rotorua Museum's collection of almost 5000 items of clothing and other household treasures an asset of national importance. A significant collection of her everyday items and archives are also held at the Rotorua Settlers and Steam Museum and Rotorua District Library.

Bob Evans died in 1984. Among her honours, Mrs Evans cherished the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit awarded in1996 for her service to Women's Division Federated Farmers and the community.