Nicola Patrick (left), Jennifer Taylor Moore, Amorangi Rayner, Hellen Puhipihi, Dani Lebo, Airini Beautrais and Katie Brown shared inspirational stories at the Her Story dinner at the Grand Hotel
Nicola Patrick (left), Jennifer Taylor Moore, Amorangi Rayner, Hellen Puhipihi, Dani Lebo, Airini Beautrais and Katie Brown shared inspirational stories at the Her Story dinner at the Grand Hotel
The Grand Hotel dining room was booked out in advance of "Her Story" on Friday, an event celebrating Whanganui women.
The evening was held to mark the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage — September 19, 1893, being the date New Zealand became the first country in the world in which all women had the right to vote.
The audience heard inspiring stories from poet Airini Beautrais, glass artist Katie Brown, permaculture educator Dani Lebo, writer and politician Nicola Patrick, Pasifika educator Hellen Puhipuhi, Sarjeant Gallery collections curator Jennifer Taylor Moore, and 14-year-old weightlifting champ Amorangi Rayner.
All the speakers on Friday night shared stories that were uplifting - there were amusing anecdotes, tales of triumph over adversity and accolades to the women who came before and inspired them.
Rayner, as the youngest, showed that she is an eloquent speaker as well as being an impressive athlete and all the speakers have extra strings to their bows as mothers, daughters and supporters of other women in the community.
They stand on the shoulders of many women who have been trailblazers in the region during the past 125 years. One early groundbreaker was Margaret Bullock.
Born in Auckland in 1845 as Margaret Carson, she came to Whanganui in the 1870s after her husband George Bullock died at sea.
Her brother Gilbert Carson was the owner and editor of the Wanganui Chronicle and although a widow with four small sons, Bullock worked as an assistant editor, reporter and business associate at the paper.
She would go on to write short stories that were syndicated in publications throughout New Zealand and novels including Utu: a story of love, hate and revenge, under the pseudonym Tua-o-rangi.
While working at the Chronicle, Bullock became one of New Zealand's first women parliamentary correspondents and a campaigner for the right of women to vote.
Margaret Bullock was a popular writer and early campaigner for the rights of women.
She established the Wanganui Women's Franchise League which was later known as the Wanganui Women's Political League leading the women's vote campaign in the region.
She would become vice president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCW) and would continue to campaign for social reforms and women's rights until her early death from cancer in 1903.
Cultural historian Bronwyn Labrum wrote a biography on Bullock for Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand in 1993 saying that Bullock deserved to stand alongside better-known figures such as Kate Sheppard.
Congratulations to contemporary Whanganui Women's groups Whanganui Women's Network, Zonta Club of Whanganui, National Council of Women and Women's Welfare League Maori for a great Suffrage celebration.
A landmark in history
In 1893, after years of pressure, 13 petitions requesting that voting rights be given to womeon were signed by nearly 32,000 women, compiled and presented to the House of Representatives.
A Women's Suffrage Bill was introduced by Sir John Hall in June but he withdrew it in October after it was superseded by the government's Electoral Bill.
The Electoral Bill containing provision for women's suffrage was introduced by Richard Seddon. The bill was passed by the Legislative Council on September 8 after last-minute changes of allegiance.
On September 19, 1893, the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed the landmark legislation into law, giving all adult women in New Zealand the right to vote in the general election held on November 28.
