Kate Sheppard House. Image from GoogleMaps, 2021.

1888. Walter and Kate Sheppard built an eight-room kauri and slate-roofed villa on their two acres purchased in 1887. The address is 83 Clyde Road, and the village was built in a rural suburb of Christchurch called Fendalton. It was located on the same street as properties owned by Kate's brother Frank Malcolm and her sisters Isabel May and Marie Beath. Today, the suburb is now called Ilam, and the historic site borders the University of Canterbury.

1891. Kate began regularly reporting on the women's suffrage movement through the women's page in The Prohibitionist, published by the Sydenham Prohibition League. Since 1887 Kate had served as the national superintendent for the department of Franchise and Legislation for the Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand – the first national organisation established by and run specifically by women. Together with her sister Isabel, she had been using her home as an office for their shared interests in women's rights activism.

1893. At her dining room table in this house, one of the women's suffrage petition rolls was pasted together before it was sent to the House of Representatives in Wellington. This particular roll contained almost 32,000 signatures. Here in the garden, Kate received a telegram on 19 September 1893 informing her of the reform of the Electoral Law in which women won the right to vote in general elections.

At the NCWNZ Conference 2022, Aleisha Amohia, NCWNZ Wellington Branch President (photo at right), presented an "Introduction to Te Tiriti o Waitangi" workshop. The workshop aimed to introduce Te Tiriti through a brief teaching of its history and articles, and offer a discussion for attendees to understand how it could be applied to our lives and mahi. Download the slides (.pdf file) here. Please contact Aleisha Amohia and/or Ashlee Metcalfe at [email protected] before sharing the slides with anyone else.

This session was in line with NCWNZ policy passed in 2018 to acknowledge and honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi:

2.11.3 That NCWNZ is committed to the rights and obligations articulated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding documents of Aotearoa. NCWNZ demonstrates a visible and tangible commitment to honouring the tikanga of tangata whenua and ensuring the fulfilment of rights and responsibilities of both Tiriti partners.

The text from the slides is reproduced below.

Artist Greg Hall, rear, with NCWNZ members anti-clock wise from him, Lynda Sammons, Joan Sullivan, Jo Power, Jenny Saywood, Margaret Campion, Sheryn Robertson, Judy Stein and Helma Vermeulen. Photo by Leigh Mitchell-Anyon also published in the Whangaui Chronicle and used here with permission.

The local branch of NCWNZ at Whanganui commissioned a window honoring women's rights activists Ellen Ballance, Margaret Bullock, and Jessie Williamson. The window also includes the NCWNZ logo and the white camelia associated with the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand. This art piece is one of twenty-five windows displayed in the District Council Chambers, depicting the Whanganui story - Nga Korero Hitoro o te Hapori. The work was designed and crafted by painter Julie Greig and glass artist Greg Hall.