"Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops."
Kate Sheppard’s portrait has graced the New Zealand ten dollar note since 1992. Kate Sheppard was a prominent leader of the campaign to give women the vote in New Zealand. She worked tirelessly to promote women’s suffrage and after a long campaign New Zealand became the first country in the world to empower all adults to vote in general elections.
Design features on the note include a white camellia, specifically the Camilla japonica ‘aba plena’, which was given to Members of Parliament in 1893 who had supported the bill to give New Zealand universal suffrage. A repeating pattern known as the mangaroa or the Milky Way is also on the $10 note (also known as purapura whetu), this pattern is taken from the Te Hau ki Turanga meeting house in the Museum of New Zealand. In one tradition, these stars are used to navigate to Aotearoa and symbolises the finding of a new direction – in others, the multitude of heavens represents the multitude of people in Aoetearoa: Maori and Pakeha, men and women.