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.

The National Association of Women in Construction NZ (NAWIC) in partnership with the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) hosted a panel of industry leaders and role models in Wellington on Suffrage Day 2024. The topic was "We Belong - Women Pioneering the Future in Construction."

Panellists were Prof Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) an architectural historian and head of Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning; Beryl Anderson ONZM, NCWNZ; Antoinette Howard, a BCITO apprentice; and Alice Carmody, Director of Choice Commercial and Quantity Surveyor; and, Kate Saunders, chair. There were around 100 people in the audience.

Panellists at the National Library in Wellington - l to r: Deirdre Brown, Beryl Anderson, Antoinette Howard, Alic Carmody, Kate Saunders.

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. 

“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.

Ōwairaka, Statue of a Cloaked Woman, Alice Wylie Reserve, Mt Albert, NZ. Photograph by Rich Greissman, September 2024, used by permission.

In Jill Pierce's The Suffrage Trail: A guide to places, memorials ad the arts commemorating New Zealand women (1995) on page 31 is a description of a sculpture erected in the Alice Wylie Reserve in Mt Albert, Auckland in 1995. According to Pierce, the women of Mt Albert had fundraised for eighteen months to pay the artist for a suffrage memorial to represent all women. it was "Ōwairaka, Statue of a Cloaked Woman" by Christine Hellyar who cast it on site. Standing at 3.6 metres, the statue was made of 1200kg of bronze and patinated in blue patina on the botanical side and a black patina for the volcanic side. Hellyar told onlookers that the cloaked woman was inspired by Wairaka, an ancestor of Mount Albert. According to an information panel originally installed at the site in 1995:

"The mould was made of sand with a rock placed in the centre and vegetation pushed into the sides. The plants were removed before the liquid metal was poured, leaving a texture on the surface. Once set the sculpture was lifted into place with a crane. The statue sits on a mound of scoria representing the significant volcanic history of the area, Mt Albert/Ōwairaka having erupted more than 30,000 years ago."