The Subversive World of New Zealand Children's Playground Rhymes

This essay explores the subversive elements and gender issues embedded within the playground rhymes of New Zealand children using a database of materials collected from throughout the country from 1990 to the present. The essay compares present-day rhymes with those from historical collections and discusses the power relationships, taboos, life passages, and gender stereotypes often contained in the form of hidden transcripts within the playground rhymes. The findings provide insight into the subversive world of children's playground culture and confirm the duality of children's playground rhymes, which are contemporary as well as traditional, innovative as well as conservative, improvised as well as inherited.