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Kate Sheppard National Memorial

Christchurch, New Zealand

Kate Sheppard National Memorial

The Kate Sheppard National Memorial, located in the city of Christchurch, is New Zealand's first memorial to the women's suffrage campaign, and particularly honours the life of one of the country's leading campaigners for women's suffrage, Kate Sheppard. The idea for the memorial was raised in 1989

as part of plans to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand in 1993. A committee was formed to select a design for the memorial, and the design of Dutch-born New Zealand artist Margriet Windhausen was chosen. The memorial is a stone aggregate wall, with a life size bronze relief sculpture of Sheppard and five other women's suffrage leaders. Panels on either side of the sculpture depict scenes of everyday women's lives at the end of the nineteenth century, and carry text describing the struggle for women's suffrage. The whole structure is approximately 5 metres (16 ft) wide and 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall. The women featured in the sculpture are (from left to right): Meri Mangakāhia of Te Tai Tokerau, who approached Te Kotahitanga (the Māori parliament) for women's suffrage Amey Daldy of the Auckland Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Kate Sheppard Ada Wells, a...

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