As the country prepares for the next general election, Hokianga is honouring the women who helped make history and registered to vote in the 1893 election, the first in the world to allow women the right to vote.
Hokianga Historic Society has immortalised the leading ladies in a book called Te Mana Pōti, launched in the society’s Omapere museum. Co-author of the book, Claire Kaahu White, says the publication offers us an opportunity to remember the significance of their decision to register to vote.
“Their votes made a difference, so they were then able to influence policy. Policy then had to include women, and to then think about a whole demographic or society that it previously hadn’t been interested in.”
White says the book tells stories of very human experiences and of women who decided to leap into an election that would change the world.
“They enrolled en masse, and in places like Hokianga, which are rural and isolated, particularly in those days. Getting even to Rawene to have your registration approved and then coming back to vote on election day in a tiny little native schoolhouse or a tiny little person’s s post office that was in someone’s room. Those were all physical obstacles they had to overcome.”
White says both she and co-author Heather Martin knew sharing the stories of these courageous women was part of a bigger mission to ensure the voices of women are seen, heard and acknowledged.
“A lot of history is told about important men and a lot of important Pākehā men”, she conveyed to the room of whānau and descendants of those who are in the book.”
“History often ignores women, and it’s very much ‘his’ story and not ‘her’ story, and this felt like an ideal opportunity to address an imbalance.”
109,461 women enrolled to vote in the 1893 election; 150 were registered in Hokianga; of those women, 30 were Māori.
White told Te Kukupa, “In that election, 79% of women in Hokianga who were registered to vote did, compared to 56% of the men”
Today, over 300,000 Māori voters are enrolled to vote in the upcoming election, many of whom are women. They follow in the footsteps of the many tūpuna wāhine who took the courageous step to have their say, with rights equal to men, not to be as a man, but to be heard as a woman.
You can purchase a copy of the book from the Hokianga Historic Society
