Lest we forget

Today we celebrate the soldiers from New Zealand and Australia who risked and lost their lives for our countries.

Over breakfast we got into a debate about whether their service is really the most important thing our country’s people have done to serve the world. Without denying that the ANZACs deserve the recognition they get, there are other New Zealanders have contributed a lot on the world scale and get little more than a face on note (which even kiwis don’t use now that everyone takes eftpos).

Lord Rutherford – Split the atom and although his science has been used for both good and evil, it really is world changing.

Apirana Ngata – A Maori leader who was probably the first “native” person to contribute to a western country’s politics.

Sir Edmund Hillary – Climbed the tallest mountain in the world.

Kate Sheppard – Lead the woman’s suffrage and got the first vote for women around the world. Without the efforts of kiwi women I am sure feminism would have eventually won the right to vote, but you’ve got to admit we did a great job of doing it first!

When you consider that these brave women were the first in the world to get females recognised as citizens in their own right, it is sad to see how little they are celebrated. Other than a face on a $10 note, a relief in Christchurch and a fountain in Auckland City there is not a lot we do to remember them.

There are so many statues in New Zealand of politicians and soldiers and none that I have ever seen have been famous women. Female statues are only found in war memorial sites. They are depicted with robes falling down revealing breast and failing to hold up the weight of an iron flag.

Are there any statues around the world in the likeness of any great women? (Real women from our age, not the Statue of Liberty or Mother Mary). Please link me to them if there are!