Sharon Kathleen Alston

Sharon Alston (13 March 1948 - 11 February 1995) was a New Zealand artist and lesbian feminist. She is most known for illustrating covers, posters, flyers, and comics for the New Zealand feminist magazine Broadsheet.

Artistic career and works Sharon Alston worked at the magazine Broadsheet, a monthly feminist magazine founded by four women, Anne Else, Sandra Coney, Rosemary Ronald, and Kitty Wishart in 1972. She would work at Broadsheet from 1973 until the early 1990s, designing the magazine covers, providing illustrations for articles, making comic strips, and creating various posters and flyers. She used the metaphor of a bloody hand to explore the sensual and emotional qualities of lesbian identity, confronting aspects of New Zealand culture which enforced safe, hetero-normative ideals. My Bloody Hand was included in the book despite pushback from anthropologist and writer Irihapeti Ramsden as well as other female Māori contributors due to the piece's potential breaking of tapu.

Some of Alston's other works included the installations Frolicking in the Valleys of Death and Ironical Journey, which were exhibited in the 1981 Women's Gallery in New Zealand. These focused on themes separate from her identity as a lesbian artist. Frolicking in the Valleys of Death depicted sheep in patterns on fields of grass and across the New Zealand flag, while Ironical Journey was a quickly assembled structure composed of iron. While Frolicking in the Valleys of Death was received as a commentary on the days in which the New Zealand flag is officially flown by the government, Ironical Journey was a more unserious piece, built for the sole purpose of being destroyed.

In a 1973 speech before a delegation of women's liberation members, Alston openly announced she was a lesbian and advocated for the rights of lesbians worldwide. This speech would be published in the June issue of Broadsheet later that year, within a section labelled 'Gay Pride.' In 1976, Alston advocated for women's bodily autonomy when dealing with issues surrounding abortion. Other scholars similarly note her significance to the history of lesbian and feminist art collectives in New Zealand.

Alston's involvement as a graphics contributor to the Broadsheet magazine and the Women's Gallery aligns with what Sydney J. Shep, an academic in book history and print culture, describes as "shifting agency", which is a concept describing the giving of power and the ability to define oneself back to the people who have been historically denied it. Alston promoted her feminist ideals through the platforms of publishing and as a creator of visual media. She helped create opportunities and an infrastructure for other women and lesbians to produce and share their artwork.

Alston's legacy, therefore, is increasingly understood through the relational and cultural networks she personally sustained and expanded before her death.