In 1893, female suffrage was established. In 1993, the Suffrage Centennial Trust / Whakatū Wahine was established on the centenary of the occasion to promote public education on the suffrage.[2] Auckland artist Jan Morrison approached the Trust and Auckland Council for funding for the creation of a mural which would commemorate the centenary.[2]Khartoum Place, was selected as the location and Morrison completed the mural with the help of fellow feminist artist Claudia Pond Eyley.[3] The project was community-led with a specific focus on the women of northern New Zealand who contributed to the movement.[3]
Close-up of Panel 8, depicting important figures of the suffrage movement
The mural consists of 12 panels made up of 2,000 colourful tiles.[5] It is a two-dimensional piece of art, but a three-dimensional space that wraps around and includes a water feature.[2] Across the first fives panels unfurls Kate Sheppard's scroll, which signifies the women's suffrage petition signed by over 25,000 women across New Zealand. The third panel displays white camellias, the flower that was gifted to members of parliament in support of the women's franchise bill. Bordering the central panels are Māori kete (flax baskets), symbolising a weaving together of cultures, and koru, to signify transformation and growth.[5] The tenth panel, on the uppermost section of the stairs, shows illustrations of iconic motifs of Auckland—Rangitoto, the pōhutukawa tree, and the huia–and the Southern Cross to represent New Zealand as a whole.[3]
Painted on the eighth and ninth panels are eleven women significant to the suffrage movement in New Zealand:
Amey Daldy – president of Auckland Women's Franchise League
An anonymous young New Zealand university graduate, who studied in England
Four women are depicted with bicycles, which were the mode of transportation that women would use to gather signatures from more rural locations.[3]
Changes and controversies
The mural's placement and importance have been contested subjects since its inception. It has come under threat of redevelopment many times.
2005
In 2005, Auckland City Council held a competition for a $2 million upgrade of Khartoum Place, with none of the entrants intending to keep the memorial. Original artists Morrison and Pond Eyley were given the final say, to which they declined its re-siting or demolition.[6]
"To them, it's a folk-art excrescence, polluting the front door of their newly upgraded temple of high art."[8]
Women in Auckland and multiple associated organisations created an online petition to save the memorial.[6] In 2012, the nascent Auckland Council decided to upgrade Khartoum Place without demolishing or moving the memorial.[9]
2015/2016
In 2015, a group of architects and gallery owners again attempted to have the mural moved. They claimed the mural was too "folksy" and "crafty", and that the gallery deserved a better staircase leading up to it. The National Council of Women then petitioned through the unitary plan process to have the memorial protected as a heritage item.[6] In 2016, their petitioning resulted in the memorial being listed as a Category A historic heritage place in the Auckland Council's unitary plan.[2][3]
Name change
In 2016, the Waitematā Local Board agreed to rename Lower Khartoum Place, where the memorial sits, to Te Hā o Hine Suffrage Place,[10] to associate the site more strongly with the women's suffrage movement in recognition of the memorial's importance. The name was gifted by Ngāti Whātua, and references the Māori proverb: Me aro koe ki te hā o Hine ahu one, which can be interpreted as 'pay heed to the dignity of women'.[10]
Heritage listing
In 2022, the Auckland Women's Suffrage Memorial was listed by Heritage New Zealand as a category 1 historic place.[3] Heritage New Zealand noted that the memorial had great cultural, social, historic and physical significance, and that persistent campaigns to protect it showed the public esteem for the artwork.[1]
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