Maker: Lee Keeley

Panel number: 498

Petition sheet number: Unknown

Person honouring: Jessie Mackay

Relationship to maker: None

Jessie Mackay was New Zealand’s unofficial poet laureate in 1902. She wrote several volumes of poetry and is best known for her ballads based on Scottish legends and the strength of her writing about Māori and women.

Jessie was born in 1864, the eldest child of Elizabeth Ormiston and Robert Mackay, a shepherd, at Double Hill Station in Canterbury. She moved to Raincliff, South Canterbury, when she was 10 years old, but continued to be educated at home.

Trained as a primary school teacher, Jessie became head teacher at Kakahu School, South Canterbury. She was a keen writer, journalist, and poet who wrote for the Otago Witness for 30 years.

Jessie met Kate Sheppard and developed a lifelong interest in women’s rights and social reform. She became a political writer and humanitarian. While Jessie’s name doesn’t appear on the 1893 petition presented to Parliament, she is said to have collected signatures for women’s suffrage.

In 1934, on her 70th birthday, she received a testimonial signed by writers, friends, and admirers. The government granted her a pension of £100 in recognition of the importance of her writing and crusading.

She died in 1938 and was buried at Christchurch’s Waimairi cemetery.

Panel materials: Own materials - white cotton sheet, silk scraps for the patchwork, antique lace and ribbon as well as sequins, beads, and buttons to embellish the work.