Convict jacket

• This asset illustrates that objects and people associated with convict life in 19th-century Australia sometimes ended up in New Zealand - it is held by the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongawera in Wellington.
• It is an example of the type of jacket worn by male convicts serving fixed terms of seven or fourteen years (they were known as 'canaries' because of the yellow colour of these jackets) to distinguish them from those serving life sentences and free settlers.
• It illustrates that the British Government employed military methods - such as the use of distinguishing uniforms - in its administration of the colonies.
• It indicates, by its small size, that some convicts were small - either children or malnourished adults.

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