On 17 June 1911, artist and activist Dora Meeson helped carry The women’s suffrage banner (1908) in the Women’s Coronation Procession in London.

Australians brought experience and expertise, artistry and imagination to the British suffrage campaign. Above all, Australians set a national example. They proved to the ‘Mother Country’ what was possible where there was a philosophical will and a legislative way.

This banner was created by Melbourne-born artist and activist Dora Meeson (1869-1955). It was first held aloft in a 10,000-strong women’s march to London’s Albert Hall in 1908. Meeson’s banner depicts ‘daughter’ Australia as Minerva, goddess of wisdom, carrying the first Commonwealth Coat of Arms. She is imploring ‘mother’ Britannia to accept her advice and guidance: to grant women’s suffrage as Australia had done with the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902.

In 1911 Meeson helped carry her banner in the contingent of Australian suffragists in the Women’s Coronation Procession in London. At a time of British parliamentary intransigence and increasingly violent protests, the banner had been transformed from her personal plea to a diplomatic dispatch. It represented the efforts of Australians to intervene in affairs at the heart of the Empire. Meeson’s work symbolised the self-belief – even assertion – of a new, democratically progressive nation on the world stage. 

The banner was purchased in England by the Australian Bicentennial Authority and presented in 1988 to Senator Margaret Reynolds, then Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, but the Australian Council of Women. Senator Reynolds accepted the Banner on behalf of the women of Australia, and in 2002 it was donated to the Parliament House Gifts Collection for permanent display in celebration of the Centenary of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902.

Still Interested:

Myra Scott, How Australia led the way: Dora Meeson Coates and British Suffrage, 2003 [pdf]
Works by Dora Meeson in the National Gallery of Victoria collection
Google Arts and Culture. The suffrage banners of Dora Meeson’s friend, Mary Lowndes