It will mark the 35th anniversary of the protest on June 9, 1978, when about 300 farmers released between 1300 and 1400 starving old ewes in Invercargill's Dee St, drove them through the city to an out-of-the-way section in Victoria Ave, and slaughtered them humanely.
Farmers were venting their frustration over chaos in the meat industry preventing them from killing stock starving in a drought. The protest gained national attention.
Now there is to be a reunion on Saturday, June 8, at the Corinthian Conventions Centre at the Invercargill Workingmen's Club, open to anyone interested in the historical event.
Repercussions resonated for more than a year after the protest, particularly directed at the two leaders, Syd Slee and Owen Buckingham, farmers from Blackmount and Te Anau, respectively.
Kurow author Dr June Slee in 1979 wrote Bloody Friday: An account of the Southland Farmer's Protest and has revised it significantly for the reunion.
Yesterday, she said the protest was to draw the country's attention to old sheep dying of starvation at a rate of 1000 a day because of industrial chaos across the meat industry, exacerbated by the effects of the worst drought experienced in Southland since 1956.
''During the first half of 1978 there were only nine days on which all four of the Southland freezing works were operating at the same time. In total, there had been 116 recorded stoppages in the first five months of 1978, resulting in Southland's kill being about 700,000 behind the previous season, with one million head of stock still waiting to be killed and the season due to finish,'' she said.
The loss of wages to the freezing workers through these stoppages was estimated as being between $2.5 million and $3 million and the loss to the community and the export trade was inestimable.
Dr Slee's new edition of her book, called Bloody Friday Revisited: Recollections of the 1978 Southland Farmers' Protest, includes memories of the day and its protracted aftermath, gathered from farmers who took part in the protest as well as others who witnessed it from the streets.
''Today's generation of young farmers would not believe what the immediate past generation of farming families went through and the toll it had on them, economically and emotionally,'' she said.
The reunion would be an opportunity for anyone interested in the protest to get together and share memories.
The book will be launched at the reunion, and further reminiscences of the day will be recorded for posterity. Proceeds from the book and the reunion will go to the Southland Hospice.david.bruce@odt.co.nz
