In February the NCW Manawatu decided to concentrate 2025 on these questions:

• What are the problems for new immigrants to our area?
• Are there ways in which we can contribute to assisting their needs?

For the March meeting, two new members -- Lana Daichman and Beth Weir -- spoke of their journeys.

Lana Daichman was born in Russia, then moved to Poland then Israel where she lived for many years. She studied Hebrew, gained a doctorate and had rewarding employment as a researcher. She moved to New Zealand in the last four months with her family so that her husband could accept a position at the Palmerston North hospital. Presently, as a full-time housewife, she has found the lifestyle change and isolation to be very difficult and has also had difficulty with job opportunities locally. She enjoyed practising her English at the meeting.

NCWNZ Wellington Branch were honoured to host our 'Spilling the tea' high tea fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

High tea attendees wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In September, the Wellington Branch of the National Council of Women New Zealand co-hosted a panel intending to put women and gender at the centre of a conversation about the economy.

Annual Women’s Debate organising team with the panel

NCWNZ Manukau Branch held a Suffrage Day commemoration on Saturday 21 September 2024 at the historic St David’s Anglican Hall, 813 Great South Road, Wiri, Auckland.

The guest speaker was Colleen Brown, writer, speaker and author, so she covered a wide range of interesting subjects. She also brought along some of her story books for children (such as Violet's Scarf, a story of an eight-year-old girl in 1915) with the option for attendees to buy one. This offer was eagerly taken up.

Some photographs from Hamilton's Suffrage Day event at Zenders Cafe, Sunday 22 September 2024.

View of guests enjoying afternoon tea.

(l-r) Judi Goldworthy and Christine Knock

Christine Knock, NCWNZ Life Member, approached Papatoetoe War Memorial Library to see if they were interested in the Manukau Branch of NCWNZ undertaking a presentation at the Library regarding the Auckland Women's Suffrage Memorial at Khartoum Place and Te Hā o Hine Place, in Auckland Central.

The Library staff agreed, and so this was undertaken on 17 September 2024. 

The Wellington Branch of NCWNZ had a fantastic time co-presenting an encore screening of Marimari with P.A.C.I.F.I.C.A. at the end of August as well as interviewing the people behind the film for the Conversations with Wāhine podcast.

From left to right: Mele Wendt of P.A.C.I.F.I.C.A., Sophie Kelsall and Katherine Dickerson of NCWNZ, Evelyn Kunda, Director of the film, Paul Wolfram, and Eleonora Bello of NCWNZ.

“Where you are is where you are meant to be,” is the encouragement given by Mordecai to his cousin Queen Esther, wife of King Xerxes during a crisis in Persia around the year 750 BCE.

Those words seemed to epitomise the various stages in the life of Trish Lindsay ONZM, as she related them to a gathering of around fifty women, including a group of secondary students, as the NCWNZ Southland Branch celebrated 131 years of women’s suffrage. Trish said, “I’ve called my talk This Looks like Fun because that’s what I thought every time I was invited to be part of a new opportunity that looked different and interesting.”

Those gathered here for NCWNZ Southland Branch’s Suffrage Day breakfast, held on Thursday 19 September at the Ascot Park Hotel Invercargill, interacted socially and listened to this inspirational speaker.

Trish was a country girl, growing up in Aparima at the foot of the Takitimu Hills. From primary school there she went on to St Philomena’s Secondary School in Dunedin, where the teachers encouraged their students to be open to the issues in the wider community. This was followed by University of Otago, Auckland University and Auckland Teachers’ College. Trish returned south to a position at the then James Hargest High School, followed by marriage to a local farmer/stock agent and living in Waianawa.

“This is where I cut my teeth on community involvement while bringing up four children, working on the farm, doing part-time teaching and running a little music school teaching piano to local children,” said Trish. She added, “This community involvement scenario fits in well with Malcolm Gladwell’s theory about doing 10,000 hours practising for future roles.” During this time things happened that caused Trish to do two pieces of research. The first was Rural Children’s Access to Libraries. After much exploration and lobbying the outcome was the creation for the Southland District Council’s Bookbus, which still runs today.

In recent years, the NCW Manawatu branch has had the policy of inviting speakers every few months, for our own edification as well as advertising an NCW presence in the local community. Our combined networks have generated a variety of remarkably interesting and educational presentations.

On a crisp winter's morning, the NCW Dunedin Branch hosted its eighth annual Inspiring Young Women breakfast. The venue reached capacity as 103 senior secondary school students and teachers gathered to enjoy a cooked breakfast and be inspired by our panel of speakers.