Suffrage 2011

Celebrating women’s suffrage – a New Zealand first

Wellingtonians and visitors to Parliament during September and October will have the opportunity to find out whether they have a family connection to the world’s first suffrage petition.

In 1893 New Zealand was the first country in the world where women won the right to vote in national elections.  The suffrage movement was this country’s first truly mass movement – mobilising tens of thousands of New Zealanders with rallies and a series of massive petitions.  

The petition was signed by nearly 32,000 New Zealanders. Nearly 24,000 of those signatures have survived on the copy of the petition presented to Parliament.

Celebrations will be held throughout the country with a Ministerial launch in Wellington on Monday 19 September.  Libraries in Waiuku, Whangaparaoa, Warkworth, Thames, Whanganui, Palmerston North, Lower Hutt, Dunedin, and Invercargill will be hosting displays and people will be able to check the petition online to see if there is a family connection.

People can view the original 1893 petition assembled by Kate Sheppard and rolled down the central aisle of Parliament in the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand, Wellington.
This treasured national document, together with the Treaty of Waitangi (also on display) are on UNESCO's International Memory of the World Register and in June this year were formally recognised on the UNESCO New Zealand Memory of the World Register.

Celebrate Suffrage Day – 19 September

Find out more:

+ Search the petition online at www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/womens-suffrage to see if a relative was a suffragist.
+ Join us on facebook www.facebook.com/NZWomenandtheVote
+ Visit the special displays 12–26 September at: 

• Thames Public Library, 12–26 September
• Ian Matheson City Archives, Ground Floor, Palmerston North City Library,
• War Memorial Library, Lower Hutt
• Invercargill Public Library
• Auckland City Libraries branches in Whangaparaoa, Warkworth and Waiuku
• Archives New Zealand, 10 Mulgrave Street, Thorndon, Wellington - 12-26 September
  
• Alexander Heritage and Research Library, Queens Park, Whanganui
• Dunedin City Library, Floor 1, (14–26 September)
  

Suffrage 2011 poster