Dazzle of Dames for memorial

Caption1: SOLIDARITY: Dames Catherine Tizard (left) and Georgina Kirby, Lianne Dalziel, and Dames Dorothy Winstone and Thea Muldoon. PICTURE / KENNY RODGER

It took a dazzle of dames, a Cabinet minister and a political nod and wink to confirm yesterday that the tiled suffrage centenary memorial in Khartoum Place is here to stay.

Now a debate has started about renaming the central city enclave Kate Sheppard Place, after the main figurehead of the suffragette battle.

Women's Affairs Minister Lianne Dalziel called the gathering of prominent dames a win for women and a win for Auckland after prematurely announcing the mural would be part of a redeveloped Khartoum Place.

She need not have worried. Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard had already declared the "tiles must stay" and his deputy, Dr Bruce Hucker, sidled up to the Herald and whispered he had the numbers to ensure the memorial was kept in its present location.

Then in a symbolic gesture, the 40 or so dames, women leaders, politicians and other interested people each took a white rose and filed down the steps of the 2000-tile memorial.

They placed their flower in one of three water features which form part of the memorial celebrating the struggle for the emancipation of women.

One of the strongest advocates for saving the threatened memorial, Margaret Wilson, took a more practical line. With a cotton tea towel in one hand and cleaning agent in the other, she scrubbed one of the memorial's grimy panels.

"It's not very nice. It's dirty.

"If something is dirty you clean it up," said the former national president of Mother's Union.

Mr Hubbard said the next step was to explore changing the name of Khartoum Place to Kate Sheppard Place or something similar.

The plan received a warm response from the four dames at the gathering, Catherine Tizard, Thea Muldoon, Dorothy Winstone and Georgina Kirby.

Dame Catherine Tizard, who unveiled the memorial in 1993 when she was Governor-General, said the word Khartoum did not have any resonance for younger people.

Older Returned Services Association members might remember the history of earlier wars but "Kate Sheppard Place would be a suitable name and make the point that there is a women's suffrage centenary memorial here".

Dame Dorothy Winstone said Khartoum Place and its historic links needed to be researched carefully but if there was no reason to keep the name, "I would go all for Kate Sheppard".



Dames' views


Do we have to constantly reinvent everything around this city.
- Dame Catherine Tizard, former Governor-General and Auckland City Mayor


It is essential to keep it ... while upgrading [Khartoum Place] at the same time.
- Dame Thea Muldoon, wife of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon


They should upgrade it and make it a tourist attraction.
- Dame Georgina Kirby, Maori Women's Development Incorporation founder and former Maori Women's Welfare League president


You don't do away with memorials.
- Dame Dorothy Winstone, educationist