Tairāwhiti Women Who Served Overseas in WW1 - Free Talk

The role of Tairāwhiti women who served overseas in World War One is the focus of this Anzac Day public lecture at the Tairāwhiti Museum.

Professor Kay Morris Matthews will speak about her ongoing research for regional museum exhibitions such as that planned for the Tairāwhiti Museum on Anzac Day 2017. Her focus will be on the 42 women who left Tairāwhiti to serve in Egypt, France, Serbia, Greece and England in WW1, and their lives before and after the war. Several of these women received New Zealand’s highest military awards.

Questions that will be addressed include:
- Did any of the women from our region identify as Māori?
- Did any of them serve as married women, although this was not the norm?
- Were any of them told not to go but went ahead and did so anyway?

If you would like to know the answers to these questions, you will have to come along.