In the 40s and 50s sheep shearers Godfrey and Ivan Bowen developed the 'Bowen Technique', an innovative method involving rhythmical sweeps of the handpiece. The legendary Godfrey was described in The Guardian as having arms that "flow with the grace of a Nureyev shaping up to an arabesque". Here he runs through the 'blows' (strokes) designed to achieve "maximum speed, quality work with a minimum of physical effort". From the days when, as the narration says, "wool [was] so important to New Zealand's posterity ... and to the warmth of the world!"
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a lost treasure. thanks. Godrey Bowen was a visionary... and had communist tendencies, supposedly. Though I have never ever found his book about his travels to Russia.
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David Peterson
Posted at 09.14PM - 05.10.2009
Thank you so much for preserving this video, and for making it available online. I was raised on a farm in the midwest USA in the same era as the video. Tho we did not raise sheep on our farm, some neighbors did, but I have never seen a sheep being sheered. So this was a real treat for me!