More than 200 Gisborne women signed the 1892 Gisborne petition that gave New Zealand women the vote in 1893. Many of these women are buried in Makaraka Cemetery including doyen of the women's suffrage movement Margaret Home Sievwright, whose grave is in Block A. Margaret set up a school on her Sievwright Lane property and joined a benevolent society, which organised funds for community projects. She organised the Gisborne branch of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union, which was deeply involved with the suffrage movement.
Click the link to view a document which includes brief sketches of the life stories of some of the people who are buried in Blocks A and A Free Section. The document is being added to constantly, and any contributions are very welcome.
The plots are listed in numerical order, but an easy way to find a name, the plot reference, or an event, is - after downloading the document, open it and use the function "Ctrl f". (Hold down the Ctrl key while you press "f".) This will open a "find" window where you can type in a search word.
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