This year marks the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.

The display set up by our librarian, Liz Jones, in the College library, has a number of books and items which chronicle the journey taken and battles fought by our early NZ women as they endeavoured to achieve equality for women. The beautifully dressed model provided by Vicki Dixon, Head of Hagley School of Fashion and College of Practical Design, adds a wonderfully accurate visual of how these women dressed at the time.

Twenty-five years ago, on 20 September 1993, Hagley was celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. The planting of three white camellias in front of Hagley House was chosen as a symbolic gesture to acknowledge the work of Kate Sheppard and her supporters who had campaigned long and hard for the rights of women to vote. The reason for the white camellias is that when the victory was announced in 1893, those members of the House of Representatives who had voted in favour of women’s suffrage were each presented with a white camellia flower, and those who had voted against were given a red camellia.

The Hagley Yearbook from 1993 recorded the event with photos and the following report:

We commemorated 100 years of women’s suffage on Monday 20 September. The day was marked by students and staff gathering to plant three white camellias at the front of Hagley House. Margaret Lucas [Deputy Principal] spoke of women’s achievements within the school community and the tradition of women planting trees around the school. All present then sang a stirring rendition of Judy Small’s “We’re going to keep on walking forward”.

The camellias were planted by Ros Heinz [former Principal], Marie Lockey [former Senior Mistress], Cecilia Mark [Board of Trustees], staff members Bev [Peja] Street, Elaine Whelan and Patricia Wallace, and the following senior and junior students – Bianca Pringle, Cheryl Koskela, Kathy Coleman, Sylvia Po Ching, Patricia Paroa, Charlotte Verity, Zelda Dixon and Chloe Godfrey.

The planters were presented with white camellia blooms and cards by children from the Preschool. The Kate Sheppard Chorus performed “E Te Ariki” under the superb direction of Rosemary Turnbull. To conclude, the Theatre Company staged their suffrage play Ribcage, a history of the life and struggles of Kate Sheppard, written and directed by Aidan Reid.

Twenty-five years on from this very special event, the camellias are flourishing and are a wonderful reminder to us all of the brave women who fought long and hard to ensure the rights of women were recognised in New Zealand.