From ordinary to extraordinary

Jacinda Ardern at BPW -

A number of women and men helped “nudge” our Prime Minister to where she is today . . . Debbie Gregory reports on Jacinda Ardern’s first speech to commemorate 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, heard in Gisborne this week.

It is fascinating New Zealand has so many women who take the ordinary and become the extraordinary, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a special 125-year anniversary of women’s suffrage breakfast meeting in Gisborne this week.

“Among the 32,000 signatures on the women’s suffrage petition there will be 32,000 ordinary and extraordinary women.”

She told the story about one woman who signed the petition after making a name for herself in the 1870s.

Her name was Catherine Wiltshire and she was Ms Ardern’s great-great-grandmother.

“A suffragette who turned the ordinary into the extraordinary.

“This signature was from a walker . . . walking I hear you gasp. But then it was called pedestrian and it was the sporting domain of men.”

That was until Catherine embarked on the journey to New Zealand at 19.

“Being a sprightly and sensible young woman, she managed to snag herself a dapper young man called Joseph on the journey.

“He was a pedestrian — what they called professional walkers of the day.

Joseph set out to replicate an English record when he came to New Zealand of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours, by walking one mile every hour without fail.

The interesting part was that Catherine tried to do it with him.

“A petite 44kg, she decided that in Joseph’s breaks she would take to the field walking a half mile ever hour.

“The novelty in those days was just too much. In particular her ‘very neat walking costume’ caught the eye of the local newspaper.

“It was bloomers, high-neck ruffled top, complete with pearls and high-top leather boots.

“A picture of her in her pedestrian garb was sent to the British Weekly — illustrated, sporting and dramatic news.

Basically an old version of Sports Illustrated.

“Not only did they publish the photo, they including a quote from a supporter, a local merchant who called her ‘the best bit of puck that ever wore petticoats’.”

Four years after arriving here she was setting records.

In 1875, what was then the city hall of Auckland filled with a crowd to see Catherine’s next feat. She was going to attempt 100 miles in 24 hours — 2833 circuits of the hall.

The Auckland Star reported she “was attempting a feat never done before by any female inhabitant on our planet”.

The New Zealand Herald article said her physique did not give much token of power of performance, but she was “pleasing and of good figure”.

“The crowd thinned (understandably) given she was walking in a circle.

‘Just because people asked’“For a time a drunk sailor walked with her. At 6.30pm next day Catherine had 2.5km to go and the hall was filling up. A band began to play as she did her final laps and as she rounded the bend, the hats and handkerchiefs were up and the applause deafening.

“She was at that time the greatest female pedestrian on the planet.

“She was in my mind a woman of huge courage and spunk — she was my great-great-grandmother.”

Ms Ardern said she didn’t tell the story to show physical prowess did not pass down through her family.

“I think sometimes we forget in front of us is a pathway laid by those who have gone before. But those women, be they grandmothers, mothers, trailblazers, they often turn ordinary into the extraordinary.

“I tell those stories because I consider myself to be incredibly ordinary,” she said.

Born in Hamilton in 1980, she calls home the two places where she grew the most.

“I credit Murupara for being the place where I probably subconsciously started thinking about politics. Not in a usual way.

I saw things that didn’t seem fair to me. I started school there but I spent the majority of my life growing up in a town called Morrinsville — a town of about 5000, 30 minutes outside Hamilton.

“It is predominantly a dairying area — it was my town of firsts. I got my first job at the local fish and chip shop, it was where I first campaigned for an office of sorts. I ran to be the board of trustee student representative, campaigning on the platform that girls should be able to wear trousers to school . . . I won.

“And it was also the place, as a 17 year old, I joined the Labour Party — and is the place I first campaigned as a Member of Parliament.

“I was 28 years old and it was then called the Waikato seat. It was the first seat Helen Clark sat in, it included the town of Morrinsville. In fact, when she ran in the ’70s she ran an advertisement in the paper that said ‘Go on Morrinsville, don’t be morons, vote Clark’,” she said.

“It’s obviously a joke she keeps in her mind because I remember when I first told her where I was from, and she laughed and said . . . ‘morons’.

“It was a tough gig, not Labour-inclined — I knew that when I would get the finger from people driving down the street . . . it’s friendly enough though.”

She took her grandmother and mother to her first candidates’ meeting in Morrinsville.

“During Q and A I gave an impassioned political answer to a question about the RMA and climate change.

“I was met with this universal ‘boo’ across the whole room, and to this day I think my grandma might have been one of them.”

Afterwards she wanted to meet “the lovely lady from NZ First . . . I’m not sure I secured her vote that election”.

The fact that she ended up in Parliament surprised her.

“I never saw myself as potentially becoming a Member of Parliament. For all of my political activism, I was quite old when I became an MP. And, at the back of my mind I was the girl from Morrinsville, school of 600, who would be a policewoman . . . like my father.

“I never had that vision I would end up there . . . never mind here.

“So how is it that I got there when I had that vision disconnect? Just because people asked.

“When I first joined Young Labour and ran to be vice-president — because someone asked me.

“When I first ran to be an MP was because Phil Goff, who I used to work for, called me one day when I was in London and standing on a platform — he rang and asked me. I said ‘No’. And I meant it. But I put it to the back of my mind.

“It was somewhere down the track, when I talked to mentors, that I was convinced to run.

“The reason I share that is because sometimes to change the perceived ordinary into the extraordinary, it takes a nudge.”

When first considering whether she would run for Parliament, she took a train to Birmingham to see (former Labour government minister) Marion Hobbs.

“I feel an infinity to Marion and still do because she wears her heart on her sleeve. A real politician of conscience. I told her what I was thinking, and I was waiting for some great political insight.

“Oh Jacinda, don’t go into Parliament single, you will stay single.”

That did not feel like the most feminist of statements, but Ms Ardern loved it.

“Because her immediate place to go was for my personal well-being. It wasn’t a career or ladder-based decision, she was thinking about whether I would be happy.

“I did have a vision I would be the Bridget Jones of the NZ Parliament, but thanks Clarke (Gayford).”

She said she has had men support her, too.

One example was when she decided to run for Parliament and came in as a list candidate.

The Wellington region had a new shining star, Grant Robertson. It was considered a marginal seat, with the incumbent stepping down.

“There was a question mark over whether we would be able to secure that seat at that point.

“Everybody was making sure Grant was well supported and had a good list spot too.”

She was at a ranking meeting.

“I remember someone standing and saying I nominate Grant Robertson for the next spot on the list. Everybody knew that whoever got that list spot was going to be the top ranking list candidate in the national ranking, and go straight to Parliament. I was sitting at the back and then Grant stood up and said ‘I refuse to be nominated until Jacinda Ardern is placed’ and sat down.

“The person who nominated Grant then said ‘I nominate Jacinda Ardern’. The rest is history.

“What a significant thing for him to do. It is no secret he is one of my very close friends. It doesn’t mean he is more generous to me in Budget, but having that support from men in Parliament — who recognise our need to do more as a government to further the role of women, to further our representation, to improve pay equity and close the gender pay gap.

“We are all in this together.”

Ms Ardern says she still considers herself to be pretty ordinary.

“Even if some of the things I have managed to do along the way have become extraordinary. They are only that way because I am a bit of a first.

“My goal is for them to be very ordinary too. My goal is that it would not be surprising to someone from a small town to be an MP and potentially be a prime minister. Even if you are only the second person in your family to go to university, or there is not much politics in your family’s life.

“That a prime minister can have kids in office, and it won’t be interesting any more.

“Ultimately that’s my goal, but at the same time I hope that in all our lives we can reflect back on what we are doing personally and realise the ordinary things — like motherhood and working and being a mother — actually achieving some of those things is extraordinary.

“There is extraordinary in everybody’s family.”