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Section 1
New Zealand suffragettes represented are:
Top Left to Right
Amey Daldy, Dolce Cabot
Bottom
Anna Stout, Harriet Morison, Jessie McKay, Learmouth Dalrymple
Above them is a telegram sent by John Hall to Kate Sheppard, when the bill is finally passed in Parliament. The telegram is dated and has a stamp on it of Queen Victoria. This is making a link with our colonial status but also puts us in a timeframe.
Section 2
This section is in the shape of a fan. It has five segments.
A huia is perched on the first segment, it looks to the past.
Segment 1: From a cartoon of the times. Seddon is under attack from women wanting full equality.
Segment 2: Meri Te Tai Mangakahia.
Segment 3: Kate Sheppard (including commemorative detail, 1993, from our $10 note).
Segment 4: Weekly News cartoon from the period. John Hall with Kate Sheppard; women casting their first vote.
Segment 5: Woman with children, looking towards the future.
On the top of the final segment is a tandem bike with a couple pedaling along.
Section 3
A modern image. Set in the Manukau Heads, out of Auckland, a female form blows the the winds of change over the land. Beneath this, is a frieze containing the ballot box symbol, used repeatedly. The final box has the MMP symbol on it. This links the changes for women in 1893 with the success of the MMP campaign in 1993.
ADDRESS BY SALLY GRIFFIN AT THE RIBBON CUTTING OF THE SUFFRAGE MURAL IN NEW LYNN, AUCKLAND. PRESENT WERE THE MAYOR AND DEPUTY MAYOR OF THE CITY.
The approach to the past is a challenge, especially when one approaches with a magnifying glass on a particular series of events and a sieve for what we know as 'objective history'. And although the past cannot be measured by contemporary times, I am sure we would certainly appreciate the women of the Suffrage era rolling up their sleeves and joining us today in finding the solutions which are necessary to solve the social and political challenges in front of us.
There are many similarities with the decades before the vote was finally won for women in 1893 and with the decades that have led up to MMP being won through referendum.
The fact that there was the Neglected and Criminal Children's Act passed in 1867 that, in no way, diminished the plight of neglected children or, in 1868 there was the Sick and Destitutes Person's Act, where funds were set aside for the maintenance of 'destitute people and orphans'.
For women and girls, there was the Employment of Females Act, in 1873, bringing in the eight hour day, between the hours of nine in the morning to six in the evening. The reality of this, though, by 1889, was women working eighteen hour days and often taking work home. Factories were open to midnight and there were no conveniences or meal rooms. The premier of the day said that in no way could the minimum wage of 6 shillings be paid to women.
Given these circumstances and given that women were deprived of the right to vote or participate in political life, they got involved, and through involvement, they got organized.
For me, it was a delight to read of the intelligent determination of the Suffrage women, their principles and demands for moral reform, the debate surrounding various options that were presented to them and the political decisions they made. One certainly gets the sense of the organizations and networks throughout the country, some more socialist and some with a religious orientation but working together to effect change.
This mural is dedicated to those women in tailoring, dressmaking, in New Zealand's first woolen mills, the boot and shoe factories, those employed in printing and bookbinding and the domestic servants and to the mothers, the intellectuals and poets who are contributed to make New Zealand the first nation to win the struggle of suffrage for women.
It is also dedicated to those working for constructive change now and for those to come, in the future.