A beloved piece of New Zealand history is helping save lives, with Water Safety New Zealand today launching Legends Live On – a fundraising campaign celebrating 50 years of Footrot Flats and the enduring legacy of its creator, Kiwi cartooning legend Murray Ball.
The Ball family has generously made an original artwork and limited-edition print featuring the iconic Dog in his lifejacket available to raise funds for Water Safety NZ. A limited run of exclusive Footrot Flats merchandise, including hats and singlets featuring Dog, is also available to purchase.
The project aims to raise $50,000, with funds supporting Water Safety NZ’s work to prevent drowning and help New Zealanders stay safer in, on, and around the water. It comes at an important time, with high demand from communities for support and a challenging funding environment.
Water Safety NZ Chief Executive Glen Scanlon said the connection with Murray Ball was awesome.
“Murray Ball and his work is legendary. Over many years, starting in the 1980s, he generously contributed his work to support water safety causes. Now his family is helping again. We can’t thank them enough.
“It’s awesome to be able to continue that connection 50 years after Footrot Flats first appeared. Murray’s work is still making people laugh, bringing Kiwis together and now, through Legends Live On, it’s helping again.”
Scanlon said it was a special chance for fans of Footrot Flats to own a piece of Kiwi history and help save lives.
“We’re incredibly proud to continue Murray’s legacy in this way. Legends really do live on.”
Mason Ball, Murray’s son and author of biography Murray Ball: A Cartoonist’s Life said his father had a remarkable ability to capture the character of New Zealand and its people.
“Dad was very good at observing things and people. I think he was able to tap into the mood of the country at that point, to some extent, and the spirit of the land.
“Water was central to many of his cartoons. The sea, the estuary, the river, fishing. Our own fishing days were fantastic. We'd go out in the evening and set a net across the river. We’d catch flounder and kāwai and some mullet. Dad would take us to the beach quite a lot.
“He’s been gone for nearly 10 years now, but his legacy lives on. He’d love that. It’s a great cause.”
A changing water safety challenge
Scanlon said in the 50 years since Footrot Flats first appeared, there had been significant progress in reducing drowning.
“Young people have led the way, with education, prevention and legislative change making a real difference in keeping our tamariki safer around water,” Scanlon said.
Today, adult men account for more than 80% of drowning deaths in New Zealand, making them the country's greatest drowning risk group.
Scanlon said it was a challenge that resonated strongly with the world of Footrot Flats - a comic built around rural New Zealand, the outdoors, the land, water and the everyday adventures of Wal, the Dog and their mates.
“Murray’s work gives us a truly unique Kiwi way to start conversations that could save lives,” Scanlon said.
From Kiwi icon to life-saving impact
Funds raised through Legends Live On will support Water Safety NZ’s work across the country, including Water Skills for Life, its national programme helping children build the practical skills and confidence they need to stay safer around water. Funds will also support wider prevention work, including targeted programmes for people most at risk and community-led solutions in New Zealand’s highest-risk drowning locations.
Legends Live On
The campaign invites New Zealanders to celebrate 50 years of Footrot Flats, remember the legacy of Murray Ball and Be a Legend by supporting water safety.
As part of the project, a number of well-known Kiwis have shared their love of Footrot Flats and what the comic has meant to them, including Otis Frizzell, Peter Gordon and Oscar Kightley, who himself learnt to swim as an adult.
The limited-edition print and a limited run of Footrot Flats merchandise, including hats and singlets featuring Dog, are available while stocks last.
Find out more, purchase a print, bid on the original, get the gear or make a donation at legendsliveon.nz
