The Wānaka Women’s Suffrage Committee’s 2020 book ‘Skirt Tales: The Sequel’ has been republished, after selling out its first 500 copies in just two months. Interest in the book has also drummed up demand for the original 1995 collection, ‘Skirt Tales: 100 Historical Stories of Women from the Upper Clutha Area, Central Otago’, the third edition of which recently sold out. 

Committee member Jenny Moss said the group of five women were “pretty excited” by the reception the book had received, after launching the self-funded project with little idea how it would go last July. The book explores the fabric of the Wānaka community, and has been of great interest to a range of readers; younger women surprised by stories about their friends’ mothers, men and even out of towners - as both books are now available in the National Library in Wellington.

“We have captured some unique stories,” said Moss. “It’s a picture of how Wānaka became the town it is today.”

The committee first came together in 1993 to celebrate the centennial year of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, when founding member Phyllis Aspinall came up with the idea to record the life stories of local women in a book. That book was later bought by the Upper Clutha Historical Records Society and is now in its (sold-out) third edition.

Moss said it would “be nice to think” that one day the books might be republished together to tell the story of local women from the 1800s right up to the 1990s, and she also hoped the tradition would continue into the future. “There are so many women doing so many amazing things in town today,” she said.

The sequel’s reprint is currently being sold in Paper Plus and Next Chapter, and both books are available in the libraries at Mount Aspiring College, Wānaka and Hāwea. 

Read edition 1004 of the Wānaka Sun here.