Maker: Kathy Inns

Panel number: 352

Petition sheet number: 422

Person honouring: M. A. [Mary Anne] Death

Relationship to makers: Great-great-grandmother

Mary Anne was one of the 1,260 people to sign the petition in Taita.

She was born at sea at 11am on the Thomas Sparks on 22 December 1842. Her parents were Elizabeth Sparrow and William Ridler from Trump Farm, Eastingham, Gloucester, England.

Mary Anne married Samuel Death in December 1863 in Taita. Together they had 10 children; one of them was my great-grandfather, Arthur Samuel. They moved to Eltham in Taranaki where they lived and farmed until their deaths.

Panel materials: The background was cotton sheeting, which belonged to my brother-in-law’s mother. The photos were inkjet printed on cotton poplin fabric and visofixed to the background. My 46 daisies were stitched in very old cotton thread – off a spool from an old weaving loom – and were stitched in white, purple, and green, the colours of the suffrage movement. Other thread used was crochet cotton belonging to my grandmother, as did the doilies I stitched on. Some random words cut from fabric used in my granddaughter’s quilt are also used to tell the story.