Maker: Greta Smith

Panel number: 69

Petition Sheet Number: 65

Person honouring: Marion Smith

Relationship to makers: Great-great-great-grandmother of Greta

Marion Smith was born in 1858 to a coal mining family at Slammanan in the lowlands of Scotland. At age 11 she pushed wagons in a coal mine to earn money for the family to replace her brother when he was killed in the mine. She married coal miner, Henry Smith in 1876. 

Following her two brothers and the call from NZ for Scottish coal miners she came to NZ with Henry and two children in 1879. Starting at Shag Point, Otago they then moved to Saddle Hill coal mines until around 1900. She had ten children including seven boys most of whom also worked in coal mining. Coal was a key energy resource in the development of Dunedin industry at the time. The Smith’s were Salvation Army soldiers from the late 1880s - the Salvation Army were noted as strong supporters of women’s suffrage. Marion died in 1946 aged 88.

Panel materials: Recycled cotton and gauze fabric background embellished with Harakeke (flax) putiputi. Photocopy of photo of Marion and husband Henry in Salvation Army uniform (circa 1890)