Fashioning Protest: Suffrage as Dressed Performance in New Zealand and the United Kingdom

When I was nine years old I wrote my first long-form piece of research on the subject of Kate Wilson Sheppard: she who graces the bright blue New Zealand ten-dollar note; she who is revered as having won New Zealand women the right to vote in 1893; she who inspired me. I recall thinking the ten-dollar note was the prettiest, it was by far my favourite. There was something about Sheppard's serenity, her beautiful face gazing out from the flat note with a look of what I took to be knowing wisdom. There was something about Sheppard's hair, pinned back upon her head, and her high-necked white gown, with a cameo affixed to the base of her throat, that appeared to me to be the height of elegance and sophistication. Sheppard fascinated me then and she continues to fascinate me now.