New Patron And Vice-Patron For KMBS

The Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society (KMBS) is thrilled to welcome a new patron, Dame Fran Wilde DNZM QSO, and a new vice-patron, Witi Ihimaera DCNZM QSM.

Dame Fran Wilde requires little introduction to most New Zealanders. She is a former MP, former mayor of Wellington, an arts advocate and a passionate Wellingtonian. She was also the driving force behind the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, which is particularly appropriate given Mansfield’s admiration for Oscar Wilde, famously convicted for homosexual acts in the late 19th century, and Mansfield’s own exploration of her sexuality as a young woman.

KMBS President, Nicola Saker, says: “I couldn’t be more pleased that Dame Fran has agreed to be our patron. Mansfield is part of Wellington’s DNA and so is Fran Wilde. In fact, she went to the school where Mansfield’s story ‘Taking the Veil’ was set – St Mary’s College. Dame Fran is enormously energetic and well-respected and all of us on the board warmly welcome her support.”

Witi Ihimaera is equally well-known as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most respected writers. Next year he celebrates 50 years of writing practice which includes such works as The Whale Rider, The Matriarch and Nights in the Gardens of Spain. He has a long history of involvement with Mansfield-related matters. He was present at the 1969 opening of Wellington’s Katherine Mansfield Memorial Park and in 1988 attended the centenary celebration of Mansfield’s birth at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The following year he published Dear Miss Mansfield and in 1993 received the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. Mansfield lived for a time in Menton, in the South of France, and the Fellowship gives a New Zealand writer the opportunity to live in the city and write in the house she stayed in. Ihimaera adds: “I also have a strong commitment to Mansfield’s childhood Māori friend, Maata Mahupuku, and how this friendship meant so much to both young women.”

Ihimaera joins esteemed actress Dame Kate Harcourt and award-winning filmmaker Dame Jane Campion as a vice-patron of KMBS.

“We are thrilled to have such a formidable line-up of Mansfield supporters to endorse and promote the work that we do at Katherine Mansfield House & Garden,” says Saker. “We especially look forward to marking the centenary of Mansfield’s death next year with them, as we celebrate the creative legacy of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most famous writer and the way she continues to inspire artists today.” says Saker.

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