Margaret Fish
President 2025
Margaret is a Waikato local, brought up on a farm overlooking the beautiful Mount Te Aroha. She is a registered Occupational Therapist and business owner.
Margaret joined the Club several years ago, having often visited with her mother Dame Jocelyn.
“I think it’s wonderful to be part of a woman’s organisation here in the Waikato that continues with strong values to provide social connection, information and knowledge”.
Elizabeth Bang CNZM
Club Patron
2022 –
Elizabeth is Fundraising Ambassador for the Waikato Medical Research Foundation and Chair of the Waikato/Taranaki Diocesan Trust Board.
She is a former president of the National Council of Women, and a former CEO of Hospice Waikato.
She was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018 for her services to health, women and the community.
Former Club Patrons
Awatere founder Gwen Firth became the club’s first Life Member in 1977, and was later invited to be its first Patron in 1994, the club’s 25th anniversary year.
She and her husband Ted Firth (founder of Firth Industries) were early conservationists who strategically purchased bush and farmland around Mt Pirongia to stop logging operations that would otherwise have affected the Mount Pirongia Forest. In 1977 they donated 5.2 ha of prime tawa and podocarp forest (the Firth Reserve) to the Royal Forest and Bird Society, and in 1985 Gwen, then a widow, placed a further 16 hectares of bush under a QEII covenant to link the original gifted area with the Mount Pirongia Park, safeguarding a valuable bush corridor for native wildlife. The E.B. Firth Charitable Trust also made substantial donations to the work of the QEII National Trust and other conservation interests.
Long-serving club member, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, was invited to become Patron in 2006 in acknowledgement of her 40th coronation anniversary in June that year. Sadly she was gravely ill and passed away on 15 August 2006.
Her reign as Māori Queen spanned 40 years, the longest reign of any Māori monarch. Dame Te Atairangikaahu was an avid supporter of Māori cultural and sporting events and played an active role in local and global political events involving indigenous issues.
In 1970 she was the first Māori to be appointed CBE, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire ‘for outstanding services to the Māori people’. In February 1987 she was the first appointee to the Order of New Zealand, and her badge of the order bears the number 1. Te Atairangikaahu was awarded an honorary doctorate from Waikato University in 1973, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Victoria University in 1973. In 1986 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of St. John.
During her tangi, representatives of Awatere Club were invited to lead a procession of some 3,000 people on to Tūrangawaewae Marae on the fourth day of mourning. This huge honour reflected Dame Te Ata’s high regard and enjoyment of Awatere Club
Co-Patron 2006
Club Patron
2007-2012
Mary de Lisle was a founding member of the Awatere Club and became Co-Patron with Dame Te Atairangikaahu in 2006 before continuing to hold the role as sole Patron for the next five years. At the time of her appointment with Dame Te Atairangikaahu it was felt the stature of both women represented a Māori and Pakeha partnership to aspire to.
Mary was the fifth woman to graduate as an architect in NZ. Mary de Lisle and her husband Aubrey were a unique couple as both were architects as well as artists, and were instrumental in creating the Hamilton Museum and Art Gallery, now Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato. Mary also did voluntary work for the YWCA and initiated the construction of the YWCA hostel in Hamilton.
Dame Jocelyn Fish dedicated her life to service for both NZ and her Waikato community, so was a popular choice to become the Awatere Club patron in 2016.
A notable women’s rights leader, Jocelyn was the first woman elected to the Piako County Council (serving 1980-1989), and was national president of the National Council of Women between 1986 and 1990. She held numerous other positions including a member of the Film and Literature Board of Review, deputy chief commissioner of the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, a member of the Broadcasting Standards Authority and a member of the National Commission for UNESCO.
In 1991, she was awarded the CBE. Two years later she was awarded a Suffrage Centennial Medal after campaigning for 1993 to be recognised as Women’s Suffrage Centennial Year. In 2001, Jocelyn was made a DCNZM which was converted to a CNZM (Commander of the NZ Order of Merit) in 2009.
2023-24 Pippa Mahood
2021-22 Jenni Vernon
2018-20 Andra Neeley
2016-17 Judith Cartwright
2014-15 Elizabeth Bang
2012-13 Crystal Beavis
2011 Judith Noble
2010 Janet Sceats
2009 Jocelyn Fish
2008 Ali Lloyd
2007 Jan Thomson
2006 Yvonne Foreman
2005 Angela Dobbs
2004 Barbara McWilliam
2003 Julie Mackrell
2002 Mandy Reid
2001 Gay Shirley
2000 Jane Lee-Smith
1999 Alison Bojesen-Trepka
1998 Margaret Thomson
1997 Andrea Haines
1996 Jane Whyte
1995 Kaye Baldwin
1994 Jocelyn Simpson
1993 Maureen Macdiarmid
1992 Anne Jackson
1991 Dorothy Wood
1990 Marcia Vautier
1989 Betty Gowing
1988 Barbara Wilson
1987 Joan Hewitt
1986 Trish McMullin
1985 Sue Sherlock
1984 Margaret Pullon
1983 Jenevere Foreman
1982 Denise Rashbrooke
1981 Nora Franks
1980 Joan Care-Cottrell
1979 Pat Hindle
1978 Binks Mannering
1977 Pauline Cotton
1976 Ata Patterson
1975 Marie Louise Stenstrom
1974 Mary de Lisle
1972-73 Elisabeth Taylor
1969 -71 Gwen Firth
Gwen Firth
Mary de Lisle
Elisabeth Taylor
Anne McCartney
Joan Beckett
Alison Edgar
Joan Blair