Maker: Deryn Scott

Panel number: 467

Petition sheet number: Did not sign 1893 petition

Person honouring: Elizabeth Hester Read

Relationship to makers: Great-grandmother (mother’s father’s mother).

Elizabeth Read (Bessie) arrived in Wellington, New Zealand on the Kaikoura in 1893 with her husband, Charles Edwin Read, and four children aged five and under – after a seven-week voyage. She was pregnant and gave birth six weeks after arrival, without medical assistance, to a one-month premature baby.

Bessie and Charles settled in Ohau and went on to have another nine children, many of who remained in the area.

Panel materials: I used hexagon shapes (both fabric and the paper pieces) that I purchased from the op shop in a bag of oddments and scraps. There was also a circle that came from a cushion made by my Playcentre Whanau. These materials represent to me the culture of making-do, re-using and waste minimisation that would have been prevalent in my great-grandmother’s life. It also represents the parenting and crafting community that supports me and is the strength shared by so many women.