Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is an integral part of New Zealand’s rural landscape. From our early days as the Women’s Division of the Farmer’s Union in 1925, RWNZ has become an authoritative voice on health services, education, environment and social issues in the rural sector.  

For more information on the NZI RWNZ Business Awards and to register please click here.

For more information on the RWNZ AGM, please click here.

Why Vote?

RWNZ held the second in our Summit Policy Webinar series on Wednesday, 23 September. In the spirit of Kate Sheppard and her team of suffragists that fought for our right to vote, we discussed the importance of voting in a democracy, why women should use our right to vote and women’s participation. Special thanks to our panellists; Fiona Gower, President RWNZ; Charles Chauvel, UNDP Global Lead on Inclusive Institutions and Processes; Agata Walczak, UNDP Parliament Development Expert; Alicia Wright, Chief Electoral Officer and Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission and; Prof Jennifer Curtin, Professor of Politics and Director of the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland.

Watch the webinar here.

Maternal Health/Hauora:

RWNZ launched it’s Summit Policy Webinar Series on Thursday 27 August. First up was a subject very close to our hearts: Rural Maternal Health/Hauora. The webinar focused on the challenges facing rural women and mothers currently and what solutions we can explore to move forward. Special thanks to Alison Eddy, Chief Executive of the New Zealand College of Midwives, and to rural midwives Kendra Short and Morgan Weathington who joined RWNZ President Fiona Gower as panellists on this inaugural webinar.

Watch the webinar here.

Since 1925 RWNZ Members have embarked on an enormous range of work, projects, events, celebrations and competitions as they have worked to support, strengthen, encourage and grow their rural communities. The records and mementos of this work are located all over the country, having primarily resided with local Members and Branches.
RWNZ is embarking on a project to catalogue the archival materials.

Stage One of the Archives Project is to locate and list all the materials held by Members, Branches, Provincials and Regions.
So that there is some uniformity in the information gathered we have prepared an Archive and Record Collection Sheet.

Please print as many copies as you need.  There is also a template to continue Part 3 if the collection you are listing requires more than one page.

Archives and Records Collection Sheet
Listing Continuation Sheet

Members Advisories available are:

Access to pharmacies and medications during lockdown

Risk of domestic violence during lockdown

Essential services – authority to travel

Resources List Part 1

Preparing and planning for work at Level 3

Resources List Part 2

RWNZ hopes to harness the talents of its Members, support the New Zealand Wool industry and promote the work of RWNZ through Project Warmth.  The concept is that Members can join together to work on a collection of knitted products which will be branded and identified as part of RWNZ’s Project Warmth range.

For more information on Project Warmth click here.

For Project Warmth patterns, please click here.

Celebrating 127 Years of Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand

Submission on Organic Products Bill