These knitted creations are a Topp tribute to the beloved alter-egos of New Zealand's most famous folk-singing/yodelling/comedy duo.
These miniature works of knitted art hail from Invercargill and might just be the ultimate Kiwiana tribute to two of New Zealand's most popular characters - Camp Mother and Camp Leader - the inspired creations of Lynda and Jools Topp; the Topp Twins.
The activist sisters (and their woollen doppelgangers) have always displayed a 'girls can do anything' attitude that New Zealanders have embraced wholeheartedly.
To top it off, the twins have just been made Dames Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to entertainment in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
The careful, detailed work that went into creating the dolls reveals the dedication of their maker, who remains a mystery. But it also suggests something larger about the impact of the Topp Twins on this country's pop culture and even our politics.
So this week we're admiring the knitted versions of Camp Mother and Camp Leader, which dames Lynda and Jools Topp gifted to Te Papa in 2000.
Camp Mother's doll is magnificent in her trademark pink velour jumpsuit and matching turban. She sports a cardigan over the top and clutches a yellow handbag.
Camp Leader pairs a dress with a lime green cardy, plus a headband, glasses and comes complete with her guitar.
The characters were part of the Topp Twins' popular television series, The Topp Twins. The show ran from 1996 to 2000 and starred Camp Mother and Camp Leader, who ran the Happy Valley camping ground, and a host of other characters.
The dolls were presented to the twins in Invercargill in 1999 while they were on tour.
"If anyone’s going to knit anything in New Zealand it has to come from Invercargill because knitting is still an art form down there, partly because of the weather," says Dame Lynda Topp, AKA Camp Mother.
"If you go out in Invercargill you’ve got to have a good cardy on or a nice jumper and you can’t beat a hand-knitted one. There’s always a lot of warmth in a hand-knitted one and also usually a lot of love, you know?”
Topp says the sisters were so impressed with the knitted "icons" that they decided to include them in their show.
"We did a programme where Camp Mother and Camp Leader ended up at Te Papa with the dolls, so at the end of the show we gifted the dolls to Te Papa - and a beautiful thing happened because Te Papa actually just took them, they didn’t have to take them but they did, and every now and then they haul them out.”
Te Papa's history curator Stephanie Gibson says the dolls tell many a yarn about New Zealand…
