Celia Lashlie tops portrait poll
Author and social justice campaigner Celia Lashlie’s portrait is destined to hang on the wall of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery.
Lashlie, who died from cancer in February, aged 61, was the runaway winner of a public vote to determine the most deserving Kiwi to join the illustrious faces in the national portrait collection.
Members of the public were asked to vote for a face to fill the Who’s Missing? gap on the walls of the gallery.
Lashlie finished well ahead of former prime minister Helen Clark, followed by women’s suffrage campaigner Kate Sheppard, whose face is not in the gallery’s collection, although she is on $10 banknotes.
Teenage pop singer Lorde and rape victims’ advocate Louise Nicholas were the fourth and fifth choices, with remaining votes spread among scores of nominees.
Lashlie’s face will join those of the Queen, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sir Edmund Hillary and about 200 others at the Wellington gallery.
The author wrote He’ll be OK: Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men, which focused on research from discussions with pupils in 25 boys’ schools throughout New Zealand. Her work on raising teenage boys, as well as on social justice issues, made her a popular speaker in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Gallery director Gaelen Macdonald said Lashlie had attracted 110 of the 657 votes cast by visitors and online during last month’s exercise, which was dominated by female nominees.
‘‘We are now on to the task of contacting her family, getting permission and then finding a portrait, or a portrait artist for a commission,’’ MacDonald said.
The gallery is preparing a fundraising campaign for the picture.