Activism Archives - Page 302 of 319

Ana Mendieta

For a long time, Mendieta’s highly publicized death eclipsed any attention being paid to her intensely important body of work. A recent surge of interest in her jolting performances, however, has turned a focus onto her work as being an important member of the displaced and abused women canon. Mendieta has inspired a book about her death written by Robert Katz, a feminist protest outside of the Dia Art Foundation’s retrospective of Carl Andre replete with chicken blood and guts, and many of her own postmortem retrospectives. She has also influenced numerous modern artists, such as Ana Teresa Fernández, Kate Gilmore, Simone Leigh, Gina Osterloh, Antonia Wright, Nancy Spero and Tania Bruguera.

Amy Hadfield Hutchinson

From 1901 to 1904 Amy was matron of the boarding hostel at her old high school; a friend, Bessie Spencer, was headmistress. On 30 August 1907, at Napier, Amy married Francis (Frank) Hutchinson, a sheepfarmer from Rissington; the marriage was childless. The homestead on Frank’s farm, Omatua, had been unoccupied, except by bees, for years. Amy and Frank restored the house and garden, and Omatua became known as a place where visitors found an ‘opportunity for intellectual conversation’.

Ann Boyce

According to the reminiscences of Ann’s grand-daughter, on one occasion after taking to farming, William Boyce decided that he wanted to make another sea voyage. He departed, leaving the farm with a manager. Ann took a dislike to the arrangement. She hired a whaleboat and two men to row her over Cook Strait, and fetched her husband back to agricultural pursuits. Her grand-daughter also records that in Motueka, with its large Māori population, Ann became increasingly knowledgeable about the medicinal properties of plants. She is said to have gained renown as a herbalist, and was often called on for medical help, particularly by Māori people.

Annie McVicar

From 1906 onwards Annie McVicar was actively engaged in social and educational work in Wellington. As an early member and vice president of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children, she was involved in establishing the local branch of the Plunket Society in 1908. She was the first secretary of the branch in 1908–9 and served again in 1913, and was a vice president for a number of years in the 1920s and 1930s. When the first Plunket nurse, Joanna MacKinnon, promoted the society’s work in Wellington, Annie McVicar accompanied her on her visits to mothers; occasionally Annie carried out this work on her own. She served on the Worser Bay School committee, chaired the ladies’ advisory committee of the Technical College from 1923 to 1949, and was a parents’ representative on the college’s board of governors from 1927 to 1939.
Annie McVicar was also interested in politics. In 1913 she was a vice president of a local women’s branch of the New Zealand Political Reform League. She became a Miramar borough councillor in 1919 and in February 1921 was nominated to represent the borough on the Wellington City Council. In April that year, after Miramar had amalgamated with Wellington, she became the first woman to be elected to the Wellington City Council. An Evening Post editorial proclaimed that ‘Never before has Wellington had a lady City Councillor, and the innovation is full of promise.’ Annie McVicar held the seat in 1923 but was defeated in 1925. She was a member of the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board (later the Wellington Hospital Board) from 1915 until she retired in 1938. In local government, as in her other activities, McVicar was energetic and pragmatic: her particular interests were education and health, especially that of women and children.

Dr Antonia Novello

A dedicated public health advocate, Antonia Novello made history as the first female and first Hispanic U.S. Surgeon General in 1990. Novello has led several major public health campaigns in her efforts to improve health conditions and access to medical care, especially for women, children, and minority populations.

Ada Wells

In 1892 Ada Wells, with Professor Alexander Bickerton, founded the Canterbury Women’s Institute, of which she was president for many years. This was one of many offices she was to hold. In 1896 she became the first national secretary of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, and in 1898 she helped to spearhead the campaign for the formation of the Canterbury Children’s Aid Society. In 1899 she became one of the first two women to be elected to the Ashburton and North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board, serving as a member until 1906 in spite of the antagonism of male members of the board to her presence. In addition to this she was associated with the Prison-gate Mission, an organisation engaged in the rehabilitation of prisoners. She was a member of the National Peace Council of New Zealand and worked with groups providing aid to conscientious objectors during the First World War.

Amy May Hutchinson

An advocate of hospital births, she wanted more maternity beds in Auckland, improved maternity services ‘to women and girls of small means’, and the ‘utmost attention and relief from pain which science can provide’ for women giving birth. Hutchinson represented the majority opinion of middle-class women’s organisations. She looked to the New Zealand Obstetrical Society as the authority on childbirth, and supported its position that a doctor and trained nurse should be present at the birth of every child.

Winifred Lily Boys-Smith

Unlike many conservative supporters of sex-differentiated education, Boys-Smith saw the study of home science at university level as ‘a great force in the education of women’ – specifically, the higher education of women. She believed that because of changing social patterns domestic skills had increasingly come to be seen as menial. The educational programme set up by her for the School of Home Science sought to lift the status of the domestic arts by providing a strong scientific education, augmented with technical instruction. An emphasis on science, particularly chemistry, also served to silence those critics who believed that the School of Home Science belonged in a technical institute, not a university.

Witarina Te Miriarangi Harris

At the time of her death, Witarina Harris was described by politician Tariana Turia as a ‘cherished kuia of Ngāti Whakaue o Te Arawa waka; darling of the silver screen; and one of Aotearoa’s original movie stars’.

Ada Mary a’Beckett

Alongside her employment, a’Beckett played an active role in the life of her community, fitting her ‘philanthropic activities … [into] the leisure moments of a busy professional life (Argus, 12 February 1927), fulfilling the adage that it was ‘the busiest women who can always find time to do a little more’ (Argus, 18 February 1927). To Melbourne journalist, ‘Vesta’ she was an example of the contribution which educated women could make to philanthropic work (Argus, 23 January 1935). She was a founder of the Victorian Women Graduates Association, took leadership roles in both the Janet Clarke Hall Committee and the Lyceum Club, and was also a member of the National Council of Women and the Victoria League. However, her most important contribution was through the Free Kindergarten Union, of which she was the foundation vice-president, president from 1919-39 and life president from then until her death. She was one of the founders, and later a lecturer at the Kindergarten Teaching College and founder of the Australian Association for Pre-School Child Development which was responsible for the establishment of the Lady Gowrie model centres across Australia. Kindergartens, she believed, had the potential to ‘eradicate the weaknesses of human nature and strengthen the good points’ and might in time ‘do away altogether with gaols and asylums’ (Argus, 19 August 1944).