Whanganui farming faces star in new Rural Women New Zealand calendar

Carol Teutscher (left) and Leonora Spark say sales of the calendar will help fund rural children's access to secondary education. Photo / Liz Wylie

Scenes of rural life in the Whanganui and Rangitīkei districts have been captured as woodblock prints and compiled in a calendar to help fund rural women’s efforts to support their communities.

Carol Teutscher from the Fordell Mangamahu branch of Rural Women New Zealand Ngā Wāhine Taiwhenua o Aotearoa (RWNZ) put her fine arts talents to work to produce a series of 13 carved works - one for each month and one for the cover.

“I studied with Marty Vreede in Whanganui and he taught me some wonderful techniques,” Teutscher said.

“To achieve that tightly curled appearance on the lamb’s coats, I used a nail head to make the impressions like Marty had shown me.”

All the people depicted on the calendar pages are locals and they are all engaged in tasks associated with farming - from shearing to spinning and from mustering to bottle-feeding lambs.

Teutscher’s fellow RWNZ member Leonora Spark is depicted caring for calves in one scene.

“I was happy to be a calendar girl as long as I didn’t have to take my clothes off like the women in film did,” Spark said.

Proceeds from the 2024 calendar will help support rural children’s access to secondary schooling in the Whanganui District.

“Mothers in the rural areas are often so busy that they don’t have the time to be driving their children over long distances,” Spark said.

“They might need help with transport, boarding costs or uniforms and digital devices.”

The RWNZ branch works mainly with Aberfeldy, Fordell and Kaitoke as the primary schools in their branch area but they have occasionally worked with other nearby schools if there was a need and available funding.

“We help in any way we can,” Teutscher said.

“RWNZ is about supporting rural women and their families so we respond to whatever the needs might be. We will put together care packages for families if there has been illness or an adverse event.”

Spark said the branch of RWNZ previously owned a property in Whanganui.

“A house in Wicksteed St was purchased back in the days when many people were still travelling into town in horse-drawn carts so the house was purchased as a place where women could wash the dust off and stay overnight if they needed to,” she said.

“It was sold some years ago and the interest payment from the sale has helped with education grants and other costs. They decreased during Covid and haven’t bounced back yet so we need to find other ways to raise money.

“In March this year, we teamed up with the La Fiesta festival for the movie fundraiser Evie held at the Embassy Theatre.”

RWNZ had its beginnings In 1925, when a number of farmers’ wives were on holiday in Wellington while their husbands attended the Farmers’ Union Conference.

After they shared experiences of the sometimes tough conditions and isolation on their farms, 16 women got together to found the Women’s Division of the Farmer’s Union.

As RWNZ approaches its centenary, members of the Fordell Mangamahu branch are heading to the national conference in Christchurch that will include the national AGMeeting and the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards.

The Working in Woodcut calendar is $20 and can be ordered via email at whanganuirwnz@gmail.com.

Liz Wylie is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. She joined the editorial team in 2014 and regularly covers stories from Whanganui and the wider region. She also writes features and profile stories.