Kate Sheppard National Suffrage Memorial Celebrated For Outstanding Significance

The Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage has been entered on the New Zealand Heritage List Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 1 historic place.

The 2.1-metre-high bas-relief sculpture depicts a life-sized Kate Sheppard, flanked by five other influential suffragists. The artwork was created for the 1993 commemorations of the momentous achievement of New Zealand women gaining the right to vote one hundred years earlier.

The creation of the memorial was a true group effort, much like the original 19 th century suffrage campaign. In June 1990, 44 women representing many women’s groups and organisations met to discuss how they could celebrate the upcoming centenary. One outcome was the establishment of the Kate Sheppard Memorial Appeal Committee.

The national memorial was partially funded through a public campaign. Supporters of the fundraising appeal had their names recorded on a Time Capsule Scroll (reminiscent of the suffrage petition) which was placed inside the Memorial. Fundraising was so successful that there were extra funds which established a Kate Sheppard Memorial award.

The Kate Sheppard Memorial Appeal committee developed a clear concept and invited sculptors to submit a design. They were looking for a bas-relief and asked that there should be "a deeper relief and a focal position for Kate Sheppard whose importance in the fight for women’s suffrage cannot be exaggerated."

The committee eventually selected South Canterbury artist, Margriet Windhausen. In her Maungati studio, Windhausen first sculpted the work with clay, from which she made a polyester resin mould, which was filled with wax to become the positive impression. The impression was then cut into pieces for casting at a foundry in Invercargill. After casting, these were then welded together, cleaned and sandblasted. Windhausen said of the six main figures at the centre, "I wanted the faces and the stance of the figures to be timeless for I believe it’s important these women should be able to speak to us today as contemporary women… They both look out at the audience and beyond into the future."

Although Kate Sheppard takes the central spot, the other five women flanking her demonstrate the shared nature of the suffrage campaigns. These women are: Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, of Taitokerau who requested the vote for women from Te Kotahitanga, the Māori Parliament; Amey Daldy, a foundation member of the Auckland Women’s Christian Temperance Union and president of the Auckland Franchise League; Ada Wells, of Christchurch, who campaigned vigorously for equal educational opportunities for girls and women; Harriet Morison, of Dunedin, vice president of the Tailoresses’ Union and a powerful advocate for working women; and Helen Nicol, who pioneered the women’s franchise campaign in Dunedin. The text panels identify other key individuals.

The presence of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia is significant. Her inclusion reflects the broader story of the impacts of colonial settlement on Māori. While Māori women and Pākehā women shared similar concerns in late 19th century New Zealand, such as the harms of alcohol, their situations differed. Many Māori women saw their prior rights eroding under colonial rule. Land issues were a key problem, and Māori women were vocal in raising concerns that so much of their lands and resources was being taken into colonial ownership. When Te Kotahitanga, the Māori Parliament, was established in 1892, Māori women were involved and able to speak from its inception.

Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia brought forward a motion to Te Kotahitanga that women be allowed to vote and stand in the Māori Parliament in 1893, but deferral of the motion meant this wasn’t put in place until 1897. By this time, all women - Māori and Pākehā - had already been granted the right to vote in national elections.

For Ngāi Tūāhuriri and for the descendants of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia, the memorial is a maumahara, a memorial to wāhine toa who successfully helped shape the end of both Māori and Pākehā women’s suffrage in Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial history.

Heritage Listing Advisor at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Robyn Burgess, says, "There’s something very inviting about this memorial. In Christchurch there are only two memorials of women, and one of those is Queen Victoria, up high on a column, representing the empire. Unlike the male statues, where men are presented larger-than-life, up high on plinth, the Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage is at ground level, near life-size and accessible. Its position encourages visitors to interact closely with the sculpture."

The site of the memorial, tucked away behind the Municipal Chambers on Oxford Terrace, might seem too modest a spot for a national memorial. But the location has some very significant connections. The first colonial timber building on the Municipal Chambers site had been the Land Office or Survey Office, built in the early 1850s. This Land Office, like others around the country, was associated with Pākehā land acquisition through colonial settlement, which was one of the reasons why Māori women sought to become active in the political sphere.

Kate Sheppard and her husband Walter would also have been directly associated with the timber municipal buildings and its 1886 brick replacement. Ada Wells, one of the women on the memorial, entered this brick building as the first woman member of the Christchurch City Council in 1917. In 1921 Elizabeth McCombs entered this same municipal building to begin a 12-year term on the Christchurch City Council, subsequently becoming, in 1933, New Zealand’s first woman Member of Parliament. The memorial also looks across to the Canterbury Provincial Chambers Building, where the National Council of Women held their first meeting in 1896 and planned their lobbying for further reforms.

The memorial sculpture was unveiled on 19 September 1993 in a special ceremony attended by up to 3000 people. As Governor General, Dame Catherine Tizard unveiled the memorial, doves were released, accompanied by choirs. The crowds then enjoyed a street party along Worcester Boulevard.

Today, the Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage is a place of gathering and reflection. Each year on Suffrage Day, 19 September, the Christchurch Branch of the National Council of Women still hold a celebration commemoration. "We feel that this is the best place to reflect and to acknowledge the many women who have gone before us, who have worked to advocate for issues that are important to women and girls in our communities. Kate and the other women on the memorial inspire us to keep pushing towards our aim of true gender equality," says the co-president of Christchurch branch of NCW, Louise Tapper. "It is always an honour to be able to lay white camellias, the symbol of women’s suffrage, at the foot of the memorial each Suffrage Day."

Robyn Burgess, who conducted the research for the heritage recognition has been impressed at the positive response from the public. "We have had 18 submissions, all of them positive, and many from organisations and interest groups. People see this as a very significant memorial not only for Christchurch, but for all of Aotearoa New Zealand."

For those wanting to learn more about the remarkable story of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, you can visit Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House, managed by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

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