Putiki Bay country women’s institute

The Museum of Waiheke is fortunate to have the complete records of the Putiki Bay Country Women’s Institute, so it’s possible to be quite precise about when its banner was made and by whom.

The Putiki Bay Institute was founded at a meeting in Ostend on June 8, 1953. At a meeting of 4 April, 1955, a member, Miss Wilkinson, showed a design she’d made for a banner. While there was general agreement that the Institute should have a banner, it was decided that a competition for a design should be held. However, by the May meeting, no alternative designs submitted. Additionally, Miss Wilkinson’s design had received favourable comment from visitors from other institutes in the Auckland West Federation, who had been visiting the island. So it was resolved her design for a banner be accepted and she be asked to make it

The banner was presented at the August meeting, with the name E. Wilkinson, carefully stitched into a hem on the reverse side. The meeting also passed a vote of thanks to others who had contributed to its making by donating the various materials.

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