According to Tania Rei's Māori women and the vote (1993), Jane Driver was one of a small number of Māori women who are known to have signed the 1893 petition.
Biography contributed by Katherine Blakeley.
Jane Reko was born about 1852 in New Zealand.
She married John Poroki Driver about 1871 and they had two sons.
They lived in Purakanui, north of Dunedin where John died in 1891 – aged 43.
When Jane signed the suffrage petition she was still at Purakanui, her occupation was farmer.
In 1895 her youngest son drowned while on a fishing expediton and her eldest son died in Dunedin Hospital in 1897.
Jane died in Dunedin on 28 February 1917 – she is buried with John in the Purakanui Native Cemetery.
Sources:
BDM online NZ https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/
Otago Nominal Index http://marvin.otago.ac.nz
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/
Click on sheet number to see the 1893 petition sheet this signature appeared on. Digital copies of the sheets supplied by Archives New Zealand.
Community contributions