Here are the women who make Dunedin 'hum'

Photographer Sinead Jenkins. PHOTO: CHRISTINE O’CONNOR
Photographer Sinead Jenkins. PHOTO: CHRISTINE O’CONNOR

It is an exhibition that marks 125 years of women's suffrage by celebrating the women who make Dunedin hum today.

Our Women: 125 of Dunedin's Extra-ordinary Women opens at Otago Museum next weekend. It is a photographic exhibition that acknowledges all of the city's wahine by highlighting the contribution of 125 of them, co-ordinator Hannah Molloy says.

"Dunedin's history is littered with remarkable, glass ceiling-smashing women, and we wanted to emphasise that our women today also carry that strength,'' Molloy, the museum's marketing manager, says.

"It's about highlighting how important our wahine are to the very fabric of the city. Maybe that's who makes your coffee in the morning, or educates your kids - it's all of them.''

The 125 portraits in the Ministry of Women-funded show have been taken by local photographers Sinead Jenkins and Nicola Wilhelmsen.

"We are proud of the strong wahine who have gone before us, while being aware of the work still to be done to ensure equality for our future,'' Jenkins says.

The portraits will be displayed on a dozen large rolling screens in the museum's Beautiful Science gallery. Each of the women featured has also contributed 100 words on what it means to be herself in Dunedin today.

 

 SOPHIE BARKER
PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

SOPHIE BARKER
Marketing manager
Otago Peninsula Trust

Sophie Barker was born in a castle, though it doesn't make her a princess, more like a Cinderella-type growing up complete with leaky roofs, visiting possums and loads of tourists. She spent decades of hard work at Larnach Castle, her family home and business, where she led the marketing and operations and grew the visitation to more than 100,000 people, between making scones and incessant dusting. She has a bachelor of commerce in economics and is an EDIT Fellow of the University of Hawaii. For seven years she was at the DCC as a business adviser.

 

Bronwyn Bay

BRONWYN BAY
Writer at shareyourgold.com

I'm very proud of the leading role Otago women played in the suffragette movement. We stand on the shoulders of giants such as Kate Sheppard, Mary Ann Muller and Meri Te Tai Mangakahia. Because of their efforts, women have more opportunities. However, there seems to be an expectation that these opportunities should not interfere with the fulfilment of traditional roles and will align with societal norms. Women are trying to juggle career, home, family, and community and not let a single one slip. For women not to be set up to fail, the opportunities we explore need to be offered within a societal system that supports us.

 


BARBARA BRINSLEY 
Nurse, aesthete, arts patron, fashionista

I have found that the important time in life is the "now'' October 2018. Reflecting on the past and on the Kate Sheppards of this world, of New Zealand, to the now of our Governor-General, our Prime Minister, our Vice-Chancellor of Otago University, the CEO of the DCC - all extraordinary women. Not to be overlooked, the extraordinary unknown women of Dunedin, going about their daily lives - we must celebrate them too. Bon sante les femmes du Dunedin and carpe diem - seize the moment.

 


INGE DOESBURG 
Artist, gallerist

I have been in Dunedin 30 years, most of them in the fine arts, both as an artist and a gallerist. NZ granted me, a German, a voice. I have been heard and treated with respect: I was given equality. That is a big deal - and a generous gesture. I want to acknowledge and repay this generosity. I try to give back as well as I can. As my fortune cookie at the Chinese Gardens recently advised: "The more you give, the more you have.''

 


EMMA GILMOUR 
Rally driver, dealer principal, Gilmour Motors

I'm so proud to call myself a Dunedin girl. I was lucky enough to grow up riding ponies around the streets of West Harbour and received great schooling through St Leonards School, St Hilda's and Otago University. Dunedin people are so friendly and authentic, it makes it a real pleasure to do business with them running my own car dealership here in the city. We are also surrounded by the best and most scenic gravel roads in the world - perfect for rally driving.

 


DONNA MATAHAERE-ATARIKI,  MNZM
Te Runaka o Otakou chairwoman and founder of iwi-driven affordable health and social services hub Te Kaika 

Culture, your behaviours, what one does, are merely the shadow that values leave behind. I leave this shadow for my mokopuna.

 


DEBBIE PORTEOUS
First female head of news at the Otago Daily Times

I grew up thinking anything was possible for women.

When I came to Dunedin as a reporter, I met exemplars of that every day. In councils, in courts, in hospitals, the university, and in our newspaper I saw women living and working in combative situations and making hard calls with thought and compassion. I saw them bring depth and diversity to their organisations. I saw their contributions result in group decisions that better reflected their community.

There are challenges in every workplace, not least in newsrooms. Luckily, in Dunedin you never have far to look for inspiration.

 


LISA WILKINSON
Principal, RASA School of Dance

I am connected to the land Te Wai Pounamu Otakou

I am connected to God, the universe, water and spirits of those passed

I am connected to my personal whanau and my Rasa whanau

I am connected to artistic practice/dance/performance

I am connected to animals suffering in the hands of humanity conformist/anarchist

 

JULIE WOODS 
That Blind Woman

I learned Braille as a 35-year-old adult in 2001 and fell in love with the story of Louis Braille, the little French boy who invented this raised dot alphabet when he was just 15 years of age. In this photo I am reading the story of Louis' life from the Boy Braille script my sister Amanda and I wrote and performed at Dunedin Fringe 2018.


 

Comments

I look forward to the ODT doing an equally biased story on men who have make our city Hum.
Or do I once again need to apologise for being a white straight male?

Have you needed to apologise before, Southlander? Many of us have, and for good reason, having been beneficiaries of a repressive, and somewhat dull, 'man's world'.

Forget the binary. Celebration of Women is not, ipso facto, denigration of Men.