Caroline Jamieson

Caroline is a lesbian woman who has lived in Aotearoa New Zealand all her life. She was born in Whakaoriori (Masterton), raised in Wellington, lived much of her adult life in Auckland, and returned to the Wairarapa in 2005.

Caroline spent much of her working life in healthcare as both an enrolled nurse and a social worker. Her work now centres on supporting families and whānau, helping adults become strong, confident, and reassured in the parenting of their tamariki and children.

Caroline and her partner live on a small lifestyle block, caring for the many animals that have come to live with them. She says she feels blessed to be in the Wairarapa, where the animals, her gardens, and the view of the mountains bring her great pleasure.

Caroline completed a Social Work degree at Auckland UCOL and spent time working under Sue Bradford at Unemployed Workers’ Rights in Auckland, as well as at the Auckland Women’s Centre.

She is a strong advocate for people who are struggling, particularly women, children, and whānau. She says sex-based rights are important, pointing to the recent struggle over pay equity and its subsequent repeal under urgency by the Coalition Government as an example of women being set back. She also says women form the backbone of family and volunteer work, much of it unpaid and insufficiently recognised.

Caroline says: “I strive to stand for what is right and fair. I am loud and proud to be a woman who will stand up for many. We live in times where women are losing their spaces and places, their freedom to gather as they wish with whom they choose, without fear of being demonised and told we are discriminating against others.

“Women have the right to be free from fear. We have the right to be heard and to be treated with respect and dignity. We have the right to gather wherever we want with whomever we choose. We have the right to be called women and to be heard!

“I am woman, I am proud, and I am willing to put my voice out there to be heard.”