Maker: Fiona Hawker

Panel number: 408

Petition sheet number: 497

Person honouring: Christina Prouse

Relationship to maker: Great-great-grandmother

Christina McIlvride was born in Wainuiomata in 1860, her parents having emigrated from Scotland in 1858. Their farmhouse, built at the crossroads, became the post office for the Wainuiomata settlers. As a preschooler, Tina played with the local Māori children and later attended school in a one-room schoolhouse. 

Tina raised her beloved horse Donald from a foal. From the age of 12 to 19 they would ride over the hill to Lower Hutt and back with the Wainuiomata mail. The twice-weekly trip of nine miles each way was made in all weathers, and if someone was taken ill at night Tina would ride to Lower Hutt in the dark to fetch the doctor.

In 1879, Tina married Richard G Prouse, member of a family of sawmill owners in nearby Whitemans Valley. Tree felling and milling was dangerous work and Tina set about learning how to treat injuries and illnesses. During their time in Whitemans Valley Tina had four daughters, and two sons who both died as babies.

In 1891, Richard and his brother James decided they would move to the new settlement of Levin and build a sawmill there. Tina, the children, and Fanny the maidservant, took two days to travel to Levin by buggy, train, and on foot. They brought two cats, four chickens, and a canary. Tina planted an orchard and garden in Levin. Besides fruit and vegetables for the table and flowers for the church, there were plants used for medicines, and for dyeing wool to be spun and knitted into garments. Two more daughters and a son were born in Levin, though sadly Eunice died before her second birthday.

Tina became a skilled bush surgeon, nurse, and midwife to the community. She rode out on horseback in any conditions whenever her knowledge, medicines, and care were needed – she’s thought to have delivered hundreds of babies. During World War 1 Tina was matron of the Weraroa Soldiers’ Hospital, and was sub-matron of the local Influenza Hospital during the 1918 pandemic.

Both the Prouse families gave land and substantial ongoing support to the Levin Methodist Church. Tina held offices in the church for over 50 years. She bought and owned land in her own right.

She fought with mill employees to preserve a stand of native bush near the homestead when they wanted to fell the trees. She bequeathed the section of preserved native bush to the people of Levin. It still exists as a public reserve and is one of the last remaining remnants of the original podocarp forest. It is known as Prouse Bush Reserve.

Tina and her sister-in-law Clara Prouse [born Sedcole] signed the petition together. The place of signing is listed as Bulls.

Tina was 91 when she died in 1951; she has at least five generations of descendants.

Panel materials: The main body of the piece is stitched on 25-count ecru linen. I’d had this linen for some time and thought it would be perfect for the project as the ecru colour gives it an aged or rustic look. The threads are DMC and Anchor stranded cottons bought for the project. The colour palette is traditional rather than modern. The linen panel is edged with purple and white strips of bias binding to represent the women’s suffrage colours and make the panel the correct length.