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.

NCWNZ made a strong showing at this year’s Women in Governance Awards, run by Women on Boards NZ, a division of the Chartered Governance Institute. These awards are set up to recognise diverse women on boards throughout Aotearoa and have been growing in strength every year. The emphasis is on championing gender diversity and/or gender equity in a variety of different sectors. I was delighted to be nominated by the NCWNZ Board and head office team for the Not-for-profit category, and even more so to be selected as a finalist – and therefore attend the flash awards dinner at the Auckland Hilton Hotel.

Hansa Naran and Pushpa Wood at Women in Governance Awards 2024

I certainly was in good company, with NCWNZ’s Hansa Naran (Manukau), a finalist in the Ethnic Communities category, along with Pushpa Wood. We all got to wear a white camellia wrist corsage, as you can see in the photos taken by Norrie Montgomery on the night.

A selfie at a visit to Rotorua hot pools. Photo supplied by Coco Clellend.

Kia ora koutou,

My name is Coco, and as some of you may know, I have been interning for NCWNZ for the past two months as the board administrator. A recent History graduate from the UK, I was looking for experience in international relations, gender advocacy, and politics. Combining this experience with overseas travel I thought would be an added bonus, which led me to NCWNZ, and I suddenly found myself on the other side of the world!

It was an honour to attend Aotearoa’s CEDAW review in Geneva on behalf of NCWNZ. 

It was a long stretch between reviews with COVID and a lack of funds making the UN reflect on how it does things.  But the CEDAW Committee of elected experts in gender matters was alive and fiery and brought impressive understanding of New Zealand to their questions.

In the first week I attended the International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) Global to Local training alongside P.A.C.I.F.IC.A. President Repeka Lelaulu, Caroline Herewini of Women’s Homelessness Coalition and Dr Rogena Sterling representing Pacific Women’s Watch (PWW). This training gave us a good overview of CEDAW and how the process works. However, the real benefit was getting to know fellow attendees from Aotearoa and figuring out our rhythm for the week ahead.

(left to right): Repeka Lelaulu (P.A.C.I.F.IC.A.), Dr Rogena Sterling (PWW), Ana Peláez Narváez (Chair, CEDAW Committee), Dellwyn Stuart (YWCA), Caroline Herewini (Women’s Homelessness Coalition)

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.

A photo of those NCWNZ Life members attending the Annual General Meeting in Christchurch: (from left) Beryl Anderson, Rae Duff, Christine Knock and Christine Low.

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.