Maker: Clare Birch

Panel number: 339

Petition sheet number: 405

Person honouring: Dinah Clark

Relationship to maker: None

Dinah Jowett was born 19 November 1815 in Pudsey, Yorkshire, England to Nancy Sharp and John Jowett.

In 1835, Dinah married labourer Charles Clark in Halifax, Yorkshire. With their two children, they arrived in Nelson on the Indus in February 1843. They had two more children before moving to Auckland. While heading north, they were shipwrecked off the west coast, rescued, and escorted 100 miles overland from Raglan to Auckland.

While other children were reputedly born in Auckland, none survived. In 1860, they successfully bid for 150 acres at Whakaharahara on the Kaipara Harbour.

Dinah was intelligent, wilful, and well-informed. She gardened, kept house, and acted as midwife, seamstress, postmistress, baker, social hostess, even confidante to Kaipara politicians. Her home was the hub of church services, visitors, parties, and hospitality; she forcefully gathered up anyone of importance passing through the region. Such was Dinah’s hosting and influence in Northland, the Clarks became well known ‘first settlers’.

Dinah loved to visit Auckland, where she owned Pine Lodge in Mt Eden and other property. One trip home from Auckland became legendary – her courage and endurance in trying weather was much admired. At 37, she was one of the earliest recorded settlers to use the Portage route north.

Dinah held ideas on women’s equality that were radical for her time. She was a spirited conversationist who signed the petition just months before she died at Pine Lodge, in January 1894, aged 78.

She was also Sir Edmund Hillary’s great-grandmother – through their son George, and his daughter Gertrude’s marriage to Percival Hillary.

Panel materials: Purchased fabrics from Waipuna Hospice in Fraser Street – an apron and some fabric scraps. I used DMC thread gifted to me years ago. The base layer was an old sheet, Mum’s panel uses the same sheet base. I bought some items to help with the applique process. Wool from my stash.