Maker: Angie Deakin

Panel number: 194

Petition Sheet Number: 234

Person honouring: Alice Cousins

Relationship to makers: None

Mary Anne (or Ann) Müller  was born in London in 1820 and died in Blenheim in 1901.

 In 1850 Mary arrived in Nelson with her two younger children having left a violent marriage in England. After her husband died she married Stephen Müller , a widowed doctor with four children and they moved to Blenheim where they were joined by Mary’s eldest son. 

Using the pen name ‘Fémmina’, she contributed articles on women’s rights to the Nelson Examiner. Her concerns included the right to vote and the lack of property rights for women. Her 1869 pamphlet, ‘An appeal to the men of New Zealand’ is considered to be the first publication calling for women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Although her name is not recorded on the surviving panels of the Suffrage petition it is likely she signed it, for in 1898 she wrote to Kate Sheppard: 'Old & failing, it is cheering to watch the efforts of the younger and abler women striving bravely to succeed in obtaining rights so long unjustly withheld’. 

Information from: Raewyn Dalziel. ’M?ller, Mary Anne’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand,https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1m59/muller-mary-anne (accessed 15 March 2019)

Panel materials: Felt, old dress and fabric scraps. I purchased black and yellow felt to make the bees.