Maker: Linda Gilbert

Panel number: 290

Petition sheet number: 344

Person honouring: R. J. McQueen

Relationship to maker: None

An orphan at an early age, Rhoda came to New Zealand as a nurse and domestic servant.

Rhoda Jane Hawkins was born in 1857 to Rhoda and Nathaniel Hawkins in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire. Both her parents died before she was four; after some time living with her grandparents, she and her sister Mary-Ann were brought up at the Muller homes orphanage at Ashley Down near Bristol.

Rhoda emigrated to Canterbury on the Waikato in 1877, as an assisted migrant. She was aged 19, and came as a nurse and general domestic servant.

In 1879, she married Lachlan McQueen, a carpenter. They settled in Invercargill. Of their eight children, three died as babies. Rhoda was survived by only two of her children.

Rhoda signed the petition in Invercargill and was enrolled for subsequent elections, in Invercargill then in Timaru.

After Lachlan died in 1911 Rhoda remarried the next year, to William Lawson who was also a carpenter, and moved to Timaru.

Rhoda died in 1934, aged 77.

Panel materials: I found a fine piece of pure cotton in an op shop at Matakana that I used as the backing. Everything else was material I had that was recycled. I used linen, yellow applique daisies, an old bandage, a clean, used dishcloth, pearl beads, pearl buttons, three safety pins, and a limited-edition mixed-media print I made in 2011 featuring red cotton and a photo of a real camellia.