Artist Sarah-Jane Moon is celebrating a major milestone, with her portrait of trailblazing politician and activist Georgina Beyer acquired for the national collection at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Moon, who has strong ties to the Eastern Bay, said the work – Georgina Beyer in the Peace Garden – captures Beyer in the Peace Garden at the Wellington Botanic Garden, a setting chosen to reflect her lifelong commitment to justice, dignity and the right to live free from discrimination.

A ground-breaking figure, Beyer was the world’s first openly transgender mayor in 1995 and, in 1999, became the first openly transgender Member of Parliament.

A former sex worker, she was a passionate advocate for social justice, playing a key role in reforms around prostitution law, civil unions, anti-discrimination protections and Māori rights.

Completed in August 2022, the portrait is among the last painted of Beyer before her death in March 2023.

It forms part of Moon’s wider body of work focusing on LGBTQ+ figures whose lives have helped shape public culture and expand ideas of identity, representation and belonging.

Moon’s work is held in public and private collections in the United Kingdom and internationally, including London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Her portraits of LGBTQIA+ figures such as Dr Ronx and Lola Flash have also been selected for the gallery’s prestigious Portrait Award.

Reflecting on the work, Moon said Beyer had been a powerful role model.

“Growing up in suburban New Zealand in the 1980s and 90s, visible diversity was limited.

“As a teenager, however, I knew it was possible not only to be gay, but to be openly, successfully and unapologetically so because of role models like Georgina Beyer.

“In this portrait, I wanted to convey Georgina’s quiet poise and dignity, her innate fairness and her conviction that things matter – and that they are worth fighting for.”