Maker: Beverley Howe
Panel number: 278
Petition sheet number: 332
Person honouring: Cybele E. Kirk
Relationship to maker: Possibly knew my relatives
Cybele Ethel Kirk spent her life working for the rights of women and children.
Born in 1870 in Auckland to Sarah Jane and Thomas Kirk, Cybele grew up in a strongly moral, fiercely temperance, Baptist household, which was, however, genial and full of fun – their cat was called Prohibition (‘Proey’ for short).
Cybele’s mother Sarah also signed sheet 332 of the suffrage petition from their Brougham St, Wellington home.
At the age of 15 Cybele helped a woman take her drunken husband home, and from that day became dedicated to the temperance cause, joining both the New Zealand Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the New Zealand Alliance.
After working as a teacher for some years, in 1924 Cybele became paid secretary of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children. Travelling between Wellington and Palmerston North, she visited the homes of the needy, those affected by drink or violence, and those of deserted or unwed mothers.
Her duties included investigating reports of child abuse, providing food and blankets for sick mothers, pursuing errant husbands for maintenance, and supporting women in the courts.
Cybele was an effective lobbyist for change to the laws affecting women and children. She developed an extensive knowledge of the workings of the justice system and campaigned for women to serve on juries. In 1926 Cybele was one of the first four Wellington women to be appointed a justice of the peace. She was president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand from 1934 to 1937 and held office in the WCTU from 1923 until her death in 1957.
In 1935 Cybele was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal for her community service. She was 86 when she died in 1957; she was buried at Karori cemetery.
Panel materials: Old sheet for background; new old-style fabrics for ‘grandmothers’ flower garden’ patchwork.